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Pope Leo XIV has identified artificial intelligence as one of the most critical matters facing humanity today.
In his first meeting with all the cardinals since his election as pontiff, Leo said AI poses challenges to defending “human dignity, justice and labour”.
He referred to his namesake Pope Leo XIII (1878 to 1903), remembered for laying the foundation for modern Catholic social thought.
Pope Leo XIII wrote a famous open letter to all Catholics in 1891, called “Rerum Novarum” (“Of Revolutionary Change”), which reflected on the destruction wrought by the Industrial Revolution on the lives of workers.
On Saturday Leo pointed out the similarity with AI, telling cardinals: “In our own day, the church offers everyone the treasury of its social teaching in response to another industrial revolution and to developments in the field of artificial intelligence that pose new challenges for the defence of human dignity, justice and labour.”
Toward the end of his pontificate, Pope Francis became increasingly vocal about the threats to humanity posed by AI and called for an international treaty to regulate it.
“It has been clearly seen in the example of so many of my predecessors, and most recently by Pope Francis himself, with his example of complete dedication to service and to sober simplicity of life, his abandonment to God throughout his ministry and his serene trust at the moment of his return to the Father’s house,” Pope Leo told the gathering.
“Let us take up this precious legacy and continue on the journey, inspired by the same hope that is born of faith.”
Leo’s speech on the perils of AI came after US President Donald Trump posted an AI-generated image of himself as the pope on his Truth Social platform less than a week after attending the funeral of Pope Francis, who died aged 88 on Easter Monday.
The White House then reposted it on its official X account with JD Vance dismissing the photo as a joke.
Former Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi wrote on X: “This is an image that offends believers, insults institutions and shows that the leader of the global right enjoys being a clown.”
Last year, an AI-generated image of Pope Francis wearing a luxury white puffer jacket went viral, showing just how quickly realistic deepfake imagery can spread online.
Pope Francis had emphasised the grave, existential concerns that have been raised by ethicists and human rights advocates about the technology that promises to transform everyday life in ways that can disrupt everything from democratic elections to art.
His greatest alarm was devoted to the use of AI in the armaments sector, which he said has seen remote weapons systems leading to a “distancing from the immense tragedy of war and a lessened perception of the devastation caused by those weapons systems and the burden of responsibility for their use”.
English (US) ·