Pope Leo XIV warns about AI: Why the new technology is now also affecting the Vatican

The topic of AI has been on Pope Leo XIV’s mind for a long time. In his first encyclical he has now brought the topic into focus and warned of the dangers of the new technology. As The Guardian reports, he apologized for the Catholic Church taking so long to condemn slavery – and spoke of “new forms of slavery” created by the digital economy.

Leo XIV calls for the “disarmament” of AI

Encyclicals are among the most important teaching letters from a pope to members of the Catholic Church. They outline his priorities and highlight key social issues. Leo XIV was born in the USA – a country that is currently particularly hard hit by AI-related upheavals. According to the online portal Layoffs.ai, tech companies such as Oracle, Intel and Amazon have recently laid off thousands of employees. In the document, the Pope also warns of a worrying resurgence of war and says AI is helping to normalize armed conflict. “For this reason, the development and use of AI in warfare must be subject to the strictest ethical constraints to ensure respect for human dignity and the sanctity of life,” the letter says.

Leo XIV urges “disarmament” of AI, noting that some autonomous weapon systems are virtually beyond human control. “Disarming AI means freeing it from the mentality of ‘armed’ competition,” he wrote, adding: “Disarming does not mean rejecting technology, but preventing it from dominating humanity.” In a passage that appears to be aimed specifically at Silicon Valley, the Pope warns that power over digital systems increasingly lies with economic and technological actors and is not controlled by states. However, if this power were concentrated in a few hands, new dependencies and forms of inequality would arise.

Anthropic co-founder joins Pope

Deviating from previous tradition, Leo XIV presented the document itself on Whit Monday at an event in the Vatican. Anthropic co-founder Christopher Olah was among those in attendance. The AI ​​company is currently embroiled in a legal dispute with the US government due to ethical concerns. The Pentagon had called on it to provide AI models for “all lawful purposes,” including autonomous weapons systems. However, Anthropic refused – and was subsequently classified as a supply chain risk. A court blocked that decision: Judge Rita Lin said the Defense Department’s actions seemed like punishment for Anthropic’s public criticism – a possible violation of constitutional freedom of speech. The judge said the classification as a supply chain risk was probably unlawful and arbitrary.

As the Tagesschau reports, the first encyclical by a pope is considered groundbreaking. Leo XIV said the Catholic Church wanted to work with AI developers to discuss the appropriate use of the technology. And Olah also emphasized that development cannot be left to tech companies alone, but must be more closely supervised. According to the Anthropic co-founder, there is a real possibility that AI will displace human labor on a very large scale. “If that happens, supporting the displaced will be a moral obligation of historic proportions,” he said. Companies like Anthropic operate under intense pressure that can sometimes conflict with doing the right thing. This makes external controls essential.