Pope Leo XIV Issues Landmark AI

Pope Leo XIV has issued a sweeping warning over the unchecked development of artificial intelligence in his first major papal document, calling for the technology to be "disarmed" and subjected to "the most rigorous ethical constraints".

The encyclical, titled Magnifica Humanitas (Magnificent Humanity), was presented at the Vatican on Monday — with Anthropic co-founder Christopher Olah seated alongside the pontiff ..

In the document, Leo warned that control over digital infrastructure and data increasingly rests not with governments but with a handful of powerful technology companies. When concentrated "in the hands of the few", he wrote, such power risks becoming "opaque", evading public oversight and generating "new dependencies, exclusions, manipulations and inequalities".

The pope was particularly pointed on AI's role in modern warfare, stating that autonomous weapons systems are "practically beyond any human reach" to control and that AI is contributing to the "normalisation of war". He called for AI's military applications to be subject to "the most rigorous ethical constraints".

Olah, speaking at the event, acknowledged that companies like his operate under commercial, geopolitical and personal pressures that can conflict with broader societal interests — making outside scrutiny essential. He also warned that AI displacement of human labor at scale would become "a moral imperative of historic proportions".

Leo stated that AI development cannot be left solely to technology companies, calling on religious leaders, governments and civil society to take an active role in shaping its trajectory.