Is Peter Thiel the Target of Pope Leo's Gandalf Quote? An Investigation.
The manifesto urges governments to slow generative AI and warns that machine-made weapons and misinformation could outpace human control.
- On Monday, Pope Leo XIV released his first encyclical 'Magnifica Humanitas,' calling on governments to slow generative AI development and citing Gandalf: 'It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set.'
- Pope Leo deliberately timed the signing to mark the 135th anniversary of his namesake Pope Leo XIII's 1891 encyclical 'Rerum Novarum,' which warned of Industrial Revolution dangers and workers' exploitation.
- The manifesto declares it 'not permissible' to entrust lethal decisions to AI systems, demands ethical frameworks be publicly discussed and subjected to shared social justice standards, and condemns AI weaponry development.
- Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah attended Monday's Vatican presentation, while tech blogger Simon Willison suggested the Gandalf reference subtly critiques billionaires Peter Thiel and Elon Musk who have misappropriated Tolkien's work.
- Pope Leo's vision extends beyond regulation to 'disarming' AI by breaking monopolistic control and democratizing technology through public debate, contrasting with filmmaker Peter Jackson's dismissal this month of AI concerns as merely a special effect.
20 Articles
20 Articles
How Pope Leo's Encyclical Rejects Trump's AI Strategy
Pope Leo XIV attends the presentation of his first Encyclical Letter "Magnifica Humanitas" in The Vatican on May 25, 2026. —Alberto Pizzoli / AFP--Getty ImagesOver the past year, Pope Leo XIV and President Donald Trump have clashed several times in the press, including on the Iran War, nuclear weapons, and immigration. On Monday, Leo potentially opened a new front: AI. Leo’s new encyclical Magnifica Humanitas—a 42,300-word open letter to the wor…
In his encyclical "Magnifica humanitas", Pope Leo can draw not only abundantly from the sources of the Catholic Social Doctrine, among the altogether 224 footnotes of the document there are also four surprises, according to Kathpress.
Pope Leo XIV published his first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, on Tuesday, focusing on the ethical and social challenges of artificial intelligence (AI). The document, extremely interesting, raises ideas such as that AI should be at the service of human dignity and not concentrate power in the hands of governments or technological giants; that technological advancement cannot justify the destruction of employment or the substitution of human …
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