Pope Leo XIV launches AI encyclical with Anthropic co-founder amid Trump administration clash

Pope and co-founder of Anthropic to launch pontiff's AI encyclical on May 25

ROME (AP) -- Pope Leo XIV and the co-founder of artificial intelligence company Anthropic will launch the pontiff's first encyclical on May 25, a document on the care of human dignity in the era of AI, the Vatican said Monday. The presence of Anthropic's Christopher Olah at the Vatican is significant, and suggests that the U.S. pope's position on AI will become a new flashpoint with the Trump administration. In February, the Trump administration ordered all U.S. agencies to stop using Anthropic's artificial intelligence technology and imposed other major penalties for refusing to allow the U.S. military unrestricted use of its AI technology. Anthropic is currently suing the administration, which it has accused of retaliating against it illegally because of its attempt to impose limits on how its AI technology can be deployed. Leo, who has made AI a priority of his young pontificate, is greatly concerned about AI in warfare and has called for monitoring of how the technology is used. The pope's presence at the launch of the document, Magnifica Humanitas (Magnificent Humanity) is also significant, since such presentations are usually conducted in the Vatican press room with a few selected officials and invited guests who answer reporters questions about the document. This time, the Vatican is bringing out an all-star cast for a formal launch in the main Vatican auditorium: Two of its top cardinals, doctrine chief Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández and development chief Cardinal Michael Czerny, will be the main presenters. Olah will be among the lay speakers, along with theologians Anna Rowlands and Leocadie Lushombo. The Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, will offer a conclusion and Leo will make a speech and provide a final blessing, the Vatican said. Leo signed the document May 15, 135 years to the day after his namesake, Pope Leo XIII, signed his most important encyclical, "Rerum Novarum," or Of New Things. That document addressed workers' rights, the limits of capitalism, and the obligations that states and employers owed workers as the Industrial Revolution was underway. It became the foundation of modern Catholic social thought, and the current pope has already cited it in relation to the AI revolution, which he believes poses the same existential questions that the Industrial Revolution posed over a century ago. The new encyclical is expected to place the AI question in the context of the church's social teaching, which also covers issues such as labor, justice and peace. Anthropic chief Dario Amodei had worked at OpenAI before he and a group quit to form Anthropic in 2021. They disagreed with OpenAI chief Sam Altman about AI safety. The newer company promised a clearer focus on the safety of the better-than-human technology called artificial general intelligence that both San Francisco firms aim to build. Earlier this year, privately held Anthropic said its valuation grew to $380 billion, positioning itself with its chatbot Claude alongside rivals OpenAI and Elon Musk's rocket maker SpaceX, which recently merged with his AI startup xAI, maker of the chatbot Grok. ___ Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

The Pope Is Hooking Up With a Co-Founder of Anthropic for Collab on AI

Blessed be the hallucinating chatbots, for they will inherit the Earth (after we destroy it). According to Bloomberg, Pope Leo XIV is building on his already expressed interest in artificial intelligence by planning his first encyclicalâ€"a letter with the Pope's thoughtsâ€"on the topic. The launch is expected on Monday, May 25, at the Vatican and will feature an appearance from Christopher Olah, co-founder of Anthropic. No word on if Leo will ditch the papal regalia for a Steve Jobs-ian black turtleneck and jeans for the event, though. Per Vatican News, the encyclical will be called "Magnifica humanitas" (or “Magnificent Humanityâ€) and will be focused on "preserving the human person in the age of artificial intelligence." It'll build on Leo XIV's clear interest in AI, which he has expressed basically since the moment that he put on the robes. When Leo first addressed senior clergy after becoming Pope, he told them, “In our own day, the church offers to everyone the treasury of her social teaching in response to another industrial revolution and to developments in the field of artificial intelligence that pose new challenges for the defense of human dignity, justice, and labor." He also previously said that he chose the name Leo to indicate his intention to follow in the footsteps of Pope Leo XIII, who served as Pope through the Industrial Revolution. Leo XIII famously issued an encyclical entitled “Rerum Novarum†or “Rights and Duties of Capital and Laborâ€â€"a landmark text on worker rights. Earlier this year, Leo XIV issued a message for the 60th World Day of Social Communications, an annual observation of the Catholic Church focused on its relationship with media. The message, titled "Preserving Human Voices and Faces," included a call for people to "not renounce your ability to think," and warned, "By simulating human voices and faces, wisdom and knowledge, consciousness and responsibility, empathy and friendship, the systems known as artificial intelligence not only interfere with information ecosystems, but also encroach upon the deepest level of communication, that of human relationships." Leo's decision to invite Olah is an interesting one. It'll certainly bolster Anthropic's ongoing efforts to brand itself the "ethical" AI option, assuming Leo is issuing a tacit endorsement of the company by having a representative there for his first encyclical on the technology. Anthropic has been cozying up to the Church, including tapping a priest to help craft its AI model Claude's Constitution. It's far from the only company to look to land Papal approval, too. Silicon Valley, despite being made up largely of atheists, has been trying to suck up to the church for years now, seemingly realizing that power in Catholicism is concentrated in a way that winning favor just requires convincing a handful of higher-upsâ€"not unlike the industry's recent realization that it can win lots of power for a relative bargain by trying to buy off politicians and sway elections. Alas for tech evangelists, the church has not been particularly interested in their view of the world, particularly under the pro-human leadership of Pope Leo XIV and his predecessor Pope Francis. Say what you will about the Catholic Church (and we absolutely do not have to pretend that it, as an institution, has made good on the beliefs that it espouses), but on paper, it does not screw around with the importance of human dignity, which is certainly something Silicon Valley could stand to learn from.

The Vatican has said a lot about artificial intelligence. A primer ahead of the pope's encyclical

VATICAN CITY (AP) -- The Vatican is gearing up for the release of Pope Leo XIV's first encyclical, a document expected to address artificial intelligence and insist on an ethics-based approach to the technology that prioritizes human dignity, social relationships and peace. Vatican officials said Leo signed the document Friday, 135 years to the day after his namesake, Pope Leo XIII, signed his most important encyclical, "Rerum Novarum," or Of New Things. That document addressed the rights of workers, the limits of capitalism and the obligations that states and employers owed workers as the Industrial Revolution was under way. It became the foundation of modern Catholic social thought, and the current pope has already cited it in relation to the AI revolution, which he believes poses the same existential questions that the Industrial Revolution posed over a century ago. The new encyclical is expected to place the AI question in the context of the church's social teaching, which also covers issues such as labor, justice and peace. "I think that the Catholic Church in many ways is going to be the adult in the room on some of these debates about how we are going to integrate AI into the rest of our society," said Meghan Sullivan, a philosophy professor at the University of Notre Dame who directs its ethics institute. "For sure, the pope is going to be one of the most forceful advocates for human dignity in these discussions." Just days after his 2025 election, Leo told the cardinals who made him pope that the Catholic Church owed it to the world to offer the "treasury of her social teaching" to confront the challenges posed by AI on "human dignity, justice and labor." The American pope, a math major who is known to spend time scrolling on his phone, will likely refer to the issue this weekend, since the Vatican on Sunday marks its social communications day with a message dedicated to the human cost of the AI race. In the message, released earlier this year, Leo warned of the need to preserve real human relationships in the face of chatbot "friends," human genius in the face of AI-powered music and video, and human reality in the face of generative AI deepfakes. The public release of the encyclical, expected in coming weeks, will likely become a new flashpoint between the Chicago-born Leo and the Trump administration, which has made the rapid development of AI a matter of vital national economic and security strategy. The U.S. has strongly rejected international regulatory efforts to rein in AI, and domestically, the Trump administration has removed bureaucratic roadblocks slowing its development. The document was signed as U.S. President Donald Trump wrapped up a visit to China that included AI business. Traveling with Trump on Air Force One were, among others, Elon Musk, whose social media platform X features his AI chatbot Grok, and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who recently secured federal approval to sell H200 AI chips to Chinese buyers. Since the AI boom kicked off with ChatGPT's debut, the technology's breathtaking capabilities have amazed the world. Tech companies have raced to develop better AI systems even as experts warn of its risks, from existential but far-off threats like rogue AIs running out of control to everyday problems like bias in algorithmic hiring systems. The United Nations last year adopted a new governance architecture to rein in AI after previous multilateral efforts, including AI summits organized by Britain, South Korea and France resulted only in nonbinding pledges. The EU in 2024 adopted its own Artificial Intelligence Act, applying a risk-based approach to its AI rules. The Vatican has sought to add its voice to the debate, offering ethical guidelines for the application of AI in sectors from warfare to education and healthcare. The underlying call has been that the technology must be used as a tool to complement, and not replace, human intelligence. The Vatican has also warned of the environmental impact of the AI race, recalling the "vast amounts of energy and water" needed for AI data centers and computational power. "There are almost a billion and a half Catholics in the world, so that alone is reason to pay attention," said Thomas Harmon, theology professor at the University of St. Thomas in Houston. "But beyond the numbers, the Catholic Church has a deep and sophisticated tradition of thinking through what it means to be human." The Vatican in 2020 enlisted tech companies to sign onto an AI pledge, known as the Rome Call for AI Ethics, which among other things boiled down some core principles for AI regulation, including inclusiveness, accountability, impartiality and privacy. Microsoft, IBM and Cisco were among the private sector companies that signed on. In his final years, Pope Francis called for an international treaty to regulate AI, saying the risks of technology lacking human values of compassion, mercy, morality and forgiveness were too great to merely trust in the morality of AI researchers and developers. He also brought his authority to bear on the Group of Seven, addressing a special session on the perils and promises of AI in 2024. There, Francis said politicians must take the lead in making sure AI remains human-centric, so that decisions about when to use weapons or even less-lethal tools always remain made by humans. He called ultimately for a ban on the use of lethal autonomous weapons, colloquially known as "killer robots." In-house, Leo has warned priests against using AI to write their homilies, but he has also raised his voice on the broader implications of AI on world peace, labor and the very meaning of reality. For the Augustinian pope, generative AI's ability to misinform and deceive through deepfake imagery is particularly worrisome, given that the search for truth is a fundamental element of his religious order's spirituality. In a June 2025 speech to an AI conference, Leo acknowledged generative AI's contributions to healthcare and scientific discovery. But he questioned "its possible repercussions on humanity's openness to truth and beauty, on our distinctive ability to grasp reality." Leo, who has emphasized a constant appeal for peace, has also called for monitoring how AI is being used and developed in warfare in the Middle East and Ukraine, where automated weapons systems are using everything from aerial drones and maritime and ground platforms. "What is happening in Ukraine, in Gaza and the Palestinian territories, in Lebanon and in Iran illustrates the inhuman evolution of the relationship between war and new technologies in a spiral of annihilation," he said this past week at La Sapienza, Europe's largest university. ___ AP Technology Writer Matt O'Brien contributed from Providence, R.I. ___ Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Pope Leo to issue text on human dignity and AI with Anthropic co-founder

In the first major text of his papacy, Pope Leo will address the rapid rise of artificial intelligence. The Chicago-born pontiff will present the document, known as an encyclical, at the Vatican next week during an event attended by Christopher Olah, the co-founder of Anthropic - a US-based AI firm that has clashed with Donald Trump's administration. The encyclical will address "the protection of the human person in the age of artificial intelligence", the Vatican said on Monday. In a break from tradition, Leo, who was elected pontiff in May last year, will launch the document during a public presentation on 25 May. He will be joined by lay speaker Olah of Anthropic, which is in the middle of a high-profile lawsuit with the Trump administration over the ethics of AI, as well as theologians Anna Rowlands and Léocadie Lushombo. Encyclicals are one of the highest forms of teaching from a pope to the Catholic church's 1.4 billion members, and typically outline his priorities while highlighting the major issues in society. Leo is expected to consider how AI is affecting workers' rights while lamenting its use in warfare. "His encyclical is going to be a response to the dazzlingly rapid technological revolution that is happening right now," said Andrea Vreede, a Vatican correspondent for the Dutch public radio and TV network NOS. "So he will say things like AI shouldn't be used in warfare, that is obvious. But he will also try to be positive and offer workable answers to modern challenges." The Vatican said Leo signed the document, which is entitled Magnifica Humanitas, or Magnificent Humanity, on 15 May - 135 years after his namesake, Pope Leo XIII, signed his most significant encyclical, which focused on the Industrial Revolution that was under way at the time while addressing workers' rights and capitalism. "The fact that Leo signed the document on the same date as Leo XIII signed his encycical is significant," said Vreede. "The 1891 document was a response to the industrial revolution, when there were immediate and practical consequences to society, and this one addresses the technological revolution." Christopher White, the author of Pope Leo XIV: Inside the Conclave and the Dawn of a New Papacy and a senior fellow at Georgetown University's Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life, said the Vatican had been seriously engaged on questions surrounding AI for several years now, pointing to regular dialogues with Microsoft, Google and other major technology firms. "Leo's new encyclical is likely to build on that tradition - not from a perspective of doomerism but one of caution that as technology advances, the human person should be kept at the centre of the discussion," said White. "Like Pope Francis, Leo will likely raise concern about the dignity of work and the need to ensure that technological advancements don't override the dignity of workers and their rights. And he'll likely insist on the need for stringent regulation and a ban on lethal autonomous weapons." Traditionally, a pope's encyclical is presented by cardinals. While the main presenters will be the Vatican's top cardinals, doctrine chief Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández and development chief Cardinal Michael Czerny, the fact that lay speakers have been invited - along with Leo's attendance - is also significant. Vreede said: "That's a very clever strategic communication move, because if the cardinals do it, nobody really listens, but if the pope is there, all the cameras will be there, and we will all listen."

Pope Leo sets Catholics on collision course with AI

Why it matters: The document, reportedly titled Magnifica Humanitas ("Magnificent Humanity"), would become the Catholic Church's clearest attempt yet to place human dignity, labor rights and ethics at the center of the AI race. * Catholic and European outlets are reporting that Leo is poised to sign the AI encyclical on the anniversary of Rerum Novarum (1891), Pope Leo XIII's foundational industrial-era labor encyclical. * The encyclical will focus specifically on AI's impact on "people and working conditions," framing it as Leo XIV's effort to modernize Catholic social teaching for the AI era, per the French newspaper Le Monde. * Other reports suggest Magnifica Humanitas will argue technology must remain subordinate to the human person -- not the reverse -- and that AI systems should protect workers, creativity and moral agency. The Vatican has not commented, but it has implemented formal AI guidelines and monitoring structures inside Vatican City. Zoom in: The late Pope Francis warned repeatedly that AI risked reducing humans to data points and accelerating inequality, surveillance and autonomous warfare. * The Holy See also backed the "Rome Call for AI Ethics," an initiative urging transparency and human-centered AI development. Context: Encyclicals are among the most important documents a pope issues -- used to set priorities and define how the Catholic Church responds to major global challenges. * They often act as blueprints for a papacy, signaling what issues will take center stage for the world's 1.4 billion Catholics. Zoom out: The Vatican has stepped up cybersecurity partnerships and AI oversight efforts, blending defense with diplomacy and ethics. * In February, Leo told priests not to use AI to write homilies or to seek "likes" on social media platforms like TikTok. What they're saying: "This is exactly the fear ... that machines were replacing human labor. And that's exactly what we're seeing right now with AI," said Andrew Chesnut, chair of Catholic studies at Virginia Commonwealth University, tells Axios. * Chesnut said Leo is treating AI less like a tech trend and more like a replay of the industrial revolution, with entry-level workers already "evaporating" as automation accelerates. * "This is going to be one of the fundamental pillars of his papacy." Between the lines: Leo XIV's choice of name increasingly looks like a mission statement. * By invoking Leo XIII, the pope is explicitly drawing parallels between 19th-century industrialization and the AI revolution now unfolding, Catholic experts say. * The message: The Church believes it has a historic role to play again during a period of technological upheaval. The intrigue: Some American Catholic institutions have also been preparing for this moment and discussing the use of AI. * The Catholic Health Care Association of the United States (CHA), for example, has been examining the ethical implications as AI increasingly shapes healthcare delivery. The bottom line: The Vatican is signaling it does not intend to sit out the AI era.

Pope Leo launches an AI commission days before he releases a papal letter alongside Anthropic cofounder Christopher Olah | Fortune

It's all-knowing, omnipresent, and somewhere between one to two billion people in the world subscribe to it. It's not Catholicism -- it's AI -- and its usage among the world's population is increasingly becoming a concern for some, especially as reports of how sycophantic it can be is leading to real-world harms. Among those concerned with its use is Pope Leo XIV, who approved the creation of a new Vatican commission on artificial intelligence on May 16. The move comes days before the pope is set to release his first papal encyclical (an official letter written by the Pope to guide bishops and practitioners on whatever subject through Catholicism) on AI usage. He'll be joined by Christopher Olah, the Anthropic cofounder who developed Claude, on May 25. The commission marks the first time the Catholic Church has formally coordinated its AI engagement under a single body, and arrives as governments worldwide remain divided on how, or whether, to regulate the technology. The commission The commission's mandate is to facilitate the collaboration and exchange of information among Vatican bodies on AI activities and projects, including setting policies for AI use within the Holy See itself. The body draws representatives from seven Vatican institutions, including the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Pontifical Academy for Life, and the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. Cardinal Michael Czerny, the prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, said the commission would help the Roman Curia "address the challenges of artificial intelligence both internally and for the whole Church, and the whole world." The Vatican has engaged with AI policy for over a decade: Pope Francis addressed the G7 on AI ethics in June 2024, and for years, Vatican representatives met privately with executives from Google, Microsoft, and Cisco to discuss AI ethics. But those efforts had never been formally coordinated under a single body, until now. The Vatican issued internal AI guidelines effective Jan. 1, 2025, before Leo's election, requiring disclosure of AI-generated content, banning AI that conflicts with the Church's mission, and establishing a five-member internal AI compliance commission. The encyclical The commission's launch comes ahead of Leo's first encyclical, which is anticipated to address AI through the lens of Catholic social teaching, covering labor rights, justice, and human dignity. The document, reportedly titled Magnifica Humanitas ("Magnificent Humanity"), will concentrate on the effects of AI on "individuals and working environments." Leo has drawn a deliberate parallel between the forthcoming document and Rerum Novarum, the 1891 encyclical by Pope Leo XIII (the namesake he cited when choosing his papal name) that addressed labor rights during the Industrial Revolution. Shortly after his election in May 2025, he said: "In our own day, the Church offers to everyone the treasury of her social teaching in response to another industrial revolution and to developments in the field of artificial intelligence." A math major turned priest Leo XIV, born Robert Francis Prevost and the first American pope, studied mathematics before entering the priesthood. In his first address to cardinals in May 2025, he identified AI as a central challenge of his papacy and called it a threat to "human dignity, justice, and labor." In his first media address that same month, he acknowledged the "immense potential" of AI, but said it must be used responsibly "to ensure that it benefits everyone." At the Second Annual Rome Conference on AI, Ethics, and Corporate Governance in June 2025, he warned AI "must never forget human dignity" and cannot interfere with proper human development, particularly for children and young people. The pope then told teenagers that year to use AI "in such a way that if it disappeared tomorrow, you would still know how to think" and warned Gen Z against over-reliance on chatbots. Most recently, in a May 2026 address at La Sapienza University in Rome, he condemned investment in AI and high-tech weaponry as propelling the world toward a "spiral of annihilation." The AI commission arrives in the middle of an escalating public dispute between Leo and President Donald Trump, one that has complicated the relationship between the White House and the Vatican since the start of the U.S. war in Iran. And AI was present in this public feud as well: Trump's account posted and then deleted an AI-generated image depicting himself in a Christ-like pose. Unlike governments that are regulating AI through legal frameworks focused on product risk, market access, and enforcement, the Vatican is approaching the technology primarily through moral teaching centered on human dignity, labor, and the common good. The European Union comes closest with its AI Act, which bans some uses and carries fines of up to €35 million or 7% of global turnover, while the U.S. remains divided between a deregulatory federal approach and a patchwork of state measures. In that sense, Leo's new commission is less a regulator than an attempt to give the Church a more organized voice in a global debate it has already been shaping through repeated warnings about AI's impact on workers, children, and human dignity.

The Vatican has said a lot about artificial intelligence. A primer ahead of the pope's encyclical

VATICAN CITY (AP) -- The Vatican is gearing up for the release of Pope Leo XIV's first encyclical, a document expected to address artificial intelligence and insist on an ethics-based approach to the technology that prioritizes human dignity, social relationships and peace. Vatican officials said Leo signed the document Friday, 135 years to the day after his namesake, Pope Leo XIII, signed his most important encyclical, "Rerum Novarum," or Of New Things. That document addressed the rights of workers, the limits of capitalism and the obligations that states and employers owed workers as the Industrial Revolution was under way. It became the foundation of modern Catholic social thought, and the current pope has already cited it in relation to the AI revolution, which he believes poses the same existential questions that the Industrial Revolution posed over a century ago. The new encyclical is expected to place the AI question in the context of the church's social teaching, which also covers issues such as labor, justice and peace. "I think that the Catholic Church in many ways is going to be the adult in the room on some of these debates about how we are going to integrate AI into the rest of our society," said Meghan Sullivan, a philosophy professor at the University of Notre Dame who directs its ethics institute. "For sure, the pope is going to be one of the most forceful advocates for human dignity in these discussions." Just days after his 2025 election, Leo told the cardinals who made him pope that the Catholic Church owed it to the world to offer the "treasury of her social teaching" to confront the challenges posed by AI on "human dignity, justice and labor." The American pope, a math major who is known to spend time scrolling on his phone, will likely refer to the issue this weekend, since the Vatican on Sunday marks its social communications day with a message dedicated to the human cost of the AI race. In the message, released earlier this year, Leo warned of the need to preserve real human relationships in the face of chatbot "friends," human genius in the face of AI-powered music and video, and human reality in the face of generative AI deepfakes. The public release of the encyclical, expected in coming weeks, will likely become a new flashpoint between the Chicago-born Leo and the Trump administration, which has made the rapid development of AI a matter of vital national economic and security strategy. The U.S. has strongly rejected international regulatory efforts to rein in AI, and domestically, the Trump administration has removed bureaucratic roadblocks slowing its development. The document was signed as U.S. President Donald Trump wrapped up a visit to China that included AI business. Traveling with Trump on Air Force One were, among others, Elon Musk, whose social media platform X features his AI chatbot Grok, and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who recently secured federal approval to sell H200 AI chips to Chinese buyers. The Vatican wants its voice and values in the AI debate Since the AI boom kicked off with ChatGPT's debut, the technology's breathtaking capabilities have amazed the world. Tech companies have raced to develop better AI systems even as experts warn of its risks, from existential but far-off threats like rogue AIs running out of control to everyday problems like bias in algorithmic hiring systems. The United Nations last year adopted a new governance architecture to rein in AI after previous multilateral efforts, including AI summits organized by Britain, South Korea and France resulted only in nonbinding pledges. The EU in 2024 adopted its own Artificial Intelligence Act, applying a risk-based approach to its AI rules. The Vatican has sought to add its voice to the debate, offering ethical guidelines for the application of AI in sectors from warfare to education and healthcare. The underlying call has been that the technology must be used as a tool to complement, and not replace, human intelligence. The Vatican has also warned of the environmental impact of the AI race, recalling the "vast amounts of energy and water" needed for AI data centers and computational power. "There are almost a billion and a half Catholics in the world, so that alone is reason to pay attention," said Thomas Harmon, theology professor at the University of St. Thomas in Houston. "But beyond the numbers, the Catholic Church has a deep and sophisticated tradition of thinking through what it means to be human." The Vatican in 2020 enlisted tech companies to sign onto an AI pledge, known as the Rome Call for AI Ethics, which among other things boiled down some core principles for AI regulation, including inclusiveness, accountability, impartiality and privacy. Microsoft, IBM and Cisco were among the private sector companies that signed on. In his final years, Pope Francis called for an international treaty to regulate AI, saying the risks of technology lacking human values of compassion, mercy, morality and forgiveness were too great to merely trust in the morality of AI researchers and developers. He also brought his authority to bear on the Group of Seven, addressing a special session on the perils and promises of AI in 2024. There, Francis said politicians must take the lead in making sure AI remains human-centric, so that decisions about when to use weapons or even less-lethal tools always remain made by humans. He called ultimately for a ban on the use of lethal autonomous weapons, colloquially known as "killer robots." Pope Leo is AI-savvy and concerned with peace, truth and human relations In-house, Leo has warned priests against using AI to write their homilies, but he has also raised his voice on the broader implications of AI on world peace, labor and the very meaning of reality. For the Augustinian pope, generative AI's ability to misinform and deceive through deepfake imagery is particularly worrisome, given that the search for truth is a fundamental element of his religious order's spirituality. In a June 2025 speech to an AI conference, Leo acknowledged generative AI's contributions to healthcare and scientific discovery. But he questioned "its possible repercussions on humanity's openness to truth and beauty, on our distinctive ability to grasp reality." Leo, who has emphasized a constant appeal for peace, has also called for monitoring how AI is being used and developed in warfare in the Middle East and Ukraine, where automated weapons systems are using everything from aerial drones and maritime and ground platforms. "What is happening in Ukraine, in Gaza and the Palestinian territories, in Lebanon and in Iran illustrates the inhuman evolution of the relationship between war and new technologies in a spiral of annihilation," he said this past week at La Sapienza, Europe's largest university. ___ AP Technology Writer Matt O'Brien contributed from Providence, R.I. ___ Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

'AI has no soul': Pope Leo expected to address AI's ethical challenges

UCF graduates boo a commencement speaker after comments calling artificial intelligence the next industrial revolution at a May 8 ceremony. Is thinking basically computing? Are humans just biological versions of machines - only less efficient than their AI counterparts? The concept that people may develop such a mindset is a major concern for Catholic observers given the breakneck pace at which AI is developing. "As soon as you start thinking of yourself as a machine, only not as good, then you're just a commodity and have no other reason to live," said John Cavadini, director of the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. "It's a pathway to desolation." That's why Cavadini and others are looking forward to the imminent release of Pope Leo XIV's first major encyclical, expected to address the growing ethical and moral challenges of artificial intelligence. The treatise will be Leo's most authoritative document to date, as topical as it is symbolic: Though the Vatican has set no specific date, a May 15 release would come 135 years to the day that Pope Leo XIII, with whom the current pontiff shares his name, issued what is considered the first social encyclical of modern times, Rerum Novarum. "He's expected to speak specifically to AI and larger questions of human work and labor being faced in many political contexts right now," said Nicholas Hayes-Mota, a social ethicist and public theologian at Santa Clara University in California. With the choice of Leo as his papal name, Hayes-Mota said the first-ever U.S.-born pope indicated a commitment to Catholic social teachings aligned with his namesake: Pope Leo XIII's Rerum Novarum, issued in 1891, focused on the working class and social justice and is considered a foundational document for the church. "Not only did Leo XIV signal that he wanted to continue this, but he perhaps had in mind recentering that question in a time of economic upheaval," Hayes-Mota said. The rapid rise of AI, while technologically dazzling, has prompted widespread anxieties on multiple fronts, including job security, human worth and potential misuse by malevolent actors looking to commit fraud, spread disinformation or foment hate. What is an encyclical? As the term implies, an encyclical is a "circular letter" designed to be shared among a community. A papal encyclical is among the church's most significant forms of communication, historically issued to all clergy, regional religious leaders or all Catholic faithful. It typically addresses an aspect of Catholic teaching to amplify, clarify or condemn a particular issue. Nearly 300 papal encyclicals have been produced since the first was authored in 1740 by Pope Benedict XIV. While Pope Leo XIII's Rerum Novarum is considered the first to address social challenges, many others have followed suit: Pope John XXIII appealed for peace in 1963, Pope John Paul II addressed economic freedom and capitalism in 1991, and Pope Francis tackled climate change and its disproportionate effects on the poor in 2015. The risks of comparison with machines Cavidini, who is also a professor of theology at Notre Dame, believes Pope Leo's encyclical "will be a decisive articulation of the beauty of human dignity as it becomes more vulnerable to digital insult." Thinking, he said, is so much more than simple computation. "It involves all of your desires and struggles," he said. "That machine doesn't have a soul. Machines don't suffer. You do. And out of that suffering comes spiritual growth. This is the glory of being human." Daniel Daly, executive director of the Center for Theology and Ethics in Catholic Health, said it will be important for the pope to address the elements that distinguish people from machines. "AI has no empathy, no conscience, no soul," Daly said. "It appears to be human because it mimics human behavior, but it's a thing, not a person. We need to make sure we preserve that distinction." Thinking otherwise, Daly said, runs the risk of degrading human existence. "That's terribly dangerous," he said. "We start to look at people as machine to be used and not as transcendently valuable human persons in their own right." Daly said he hopes the pope addresses the importance and value of human work. As AI continues to advance, he said, "some people are promising a world without work. But work doesn't just feed us and our families. It's the primary way we contribute to the common good. A life without work is not worthy of a human person." Catholic healthcare observers worry Artificial intelligence is an issue the theology and ethics center is already confronting, having hosted a conference earlier this year on AI, medicine and Catholic healthcare. The overarching concern, Daly said, is whether AI will be leveraged to promote human flourishing or whether efficiency and productivity will become the focus, leaving patients behind. "What does it do to the patient-professional relationship?" he said. "Will it be used to enhance, to allow the professional to listen to the patient? Or is it replacing the role of the healer? That would be an enormous loss to healthcare overall." Another overlooked but important risk of AI, Daly said, is that technological advances tend to favor those already represented in such settings - in other words, those adept with new technology and who have electronic health records. "We shouldn't have a two-tiered health system," Daly said. "Unless we put energy into making sure it benefits all people, it will tend to skew toward those who already have access to high-quality healthcare.... This is an invitation for the human community to become the protagonist and seize the moment to make sure it promote wellbeing for everyone, not just those who are advantaged." High hopes for Leo's treatise Hayes-Mota hopes the papal document can place the church, especially in the U.S., at the forefront of an emerging and urgent public conversation. The pope, he said, can play a leading role in fostering that conversation and ensuring it's "anchored in moral values" and the fundamental questions AI is raising. In the 1980s, he said, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops released a pair of pastoral letters - "The Challenge of Peace" (1983) and "Economic Justice for All" (1986) - that some took as criticizing the priorities of President Ronald Reagan's administration. Instead, they were trying to accomplish something more profound, Hayes-Mota said. "They were trying to start a new public conversation within the Catholic church but also among the public at large," he said. "They wanted to say that there are fundamental moral issues at stake that we need to talk about in a democracy." The documents prompted public hearings and garnered media attention. The moment, Hayes-Mota said, was seen as a highwater indication of how the church can be engaged as a public voice, bringing a moral dimension into issues commonly viewed as political. "I think there's an opportunity for the global church and the U.S. church to do that with AI," he said. "If Leo's encyclical could catalyze that, it could be a profound contribution to our society and model what the church's role in the world looks like." Contributing: Doyle Rice, USA TODAY

Pope Leo to address rise of AI in first major text

VATICAN CITY - Pope Leo will address the rise of artificial intelligence in his first in-depth text outlining his concerns, the Vatican said on Monday, adding that it would be unveiled on May 25 by the pontiff himself. The document, known as an encyclical, is likely to decry the use of AI in warfare and address how the technology is challenging workers' rights, according to sources. It will be titled "Magnifica Humanitas" (Magnificent Humanity) and was formally signed by the pope on Friday ahead of publication, a Vatican statement said.

Pope Leo to issue first major work, addressing AI, on May 25

VATICAN CITY, May 18 (Reuters) - Pope Leo will release his first in-depth document, expected to address the rise of artificial intelligence and challenges to workers' rights, on May 25, the Vatican announced on Monday. The text, known as an encyclical, is also likely to decry the wars roiling the world. It will be titled "Magnifica Humanitas" (Magnificent Humanity) and was formally signed by the pope on Friday ahead of publication, a statement said. Leo, the first U.S. pope, will take part in a Vatican presentation of the text on the day of its publication, in an unusual move for a Catholic pontiff. (Reporting by Joshua McElwee, editing by Gavin Jones)