Pope Leo XIV has called for governments to regulate artificial intelligence, warning that politicians and executives must ensure the technology is not used to create “an inhumane and more unjust world.”
In a 42,300-word papal encyclical, an open letter to “all people of good will,” the American-born pope wrote that AI isn’t inherently “antagonistic to humanity,” but that it runs the risk of leading to mass unemployment, which he called “a true social calamity.”
Referencing the biblical story of the Tower of Babel, the pope also cautioned that immense digital power should not be concentrated in the hands of a few private individuals.
Instead, he called for a diverse group of stakeholders to work together to counter the humanitarian and environmental costs of AI, including its role in distorting the truth and fueling an autonomous weapons race.
Titled Magnifica Humanitas, the open letter was described by The Wall Street Journal as a “rebuke” to President Donald Trump’s blind allegiance to the technology and its creators.
It comes as the pontiff, who is originally from Chicago, has also clashed with Trump over his invasion of Venezuela, the war in Iran, and the administration’s treatment of immigrants.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
Since returning to office, Trump has signed three executive orders aimed at deregulating AI—including one that attempted to block states from enforcing their own AI rules—and has refused to rein in potentially dangerous AI models.
“We’re leading China, we’re leading everybody, and I don’t want to do anything that’s going to get in the way of that lead,” Trump told reporters last week, as reported by NBC News.
The president has also said artificial intelligence should really be called “genius intelligence,” though he has generally failed to demonstrate a firm grasp of the technology.
Pope Leo had previously warned about the dangers of AI, but policymakers, business leaders, and faith groups were waiting eagerly to see whether his open letter would draw on thousands of years of the church’s teachings to call out today’s tech-lord billionaires.
The answer was an unambiguous yes.
“Technology is never neutral, because it takes on the characteristics of those who devise, finance, regulate, and use it,” wrote Leo.
The pontiff explained that he was inspired by his spiritual predecessor Pope Leo XIII’s groundbreaking 1891 encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, which, during the Industrial Revolution, advocated for safe working conditions and a broader distribution of wealth.
He presented the open letter alongside Christopher Olah, a co-founder of the AI firm Anthropic, which the Vatican called a symbolic gesture of dialogue with Silicon Valley.
Earlier this year, Trump’s Department of Defense severed ties with Anthropic and designated the company a supply-chain risk after it refused to allow its models to be used for domestic mass surveillance and certain autonomous weapons systems.
The company has sued, claiming it was the subject of an “unlawful campaign of retaliation.”
