A Pope Speaking to More Than a Billion People
When Pope Leo XIV speaks, people listen. As leader of the Catholic Church, he is one of the most influential religious figures on Earth, guiding a global institution with approximately 1.422 billion baptized members worldwide, representing nearly 17.8% of the world’s population. In the United States alone, an estimated 60 to 85 million Catholics identify with the Church, making it the country’s largest single religious denomination. The Catholic Church spans continents, operates schools, hospitals, charities, and dioceses around the globe, and reaches into the lives of people far beyond weekly church attendance.
Now, Pope Leo has issued one of the strongest warnings yet from a major global leader about artificial intelligence, declaring that AI must be “disarmed” and warning that society risks repeating some of history’s darkest moral failures if it moves too fast without ethical safeguards.
In the first major teaching document of his papacy, an encyclical titled Magnifica Humanitas (“Magnificent Humanity”), Pope Leo warned that artificial intelligence poses profound dangers if left unchecked. Encyclicals are traditionally letters addressed to Catholic bishops, but in modern times they have become broader moral messages directed to the world.
The Pope deliberately chose dramatic language to sound an alarm.
“The word is strong, I know, but deliberately chosen because this moment needs words capable of attracting attention,” he said in explaining why he used the term “disarmed” to describe the future of AI.
For Pope Leo, the concern is not merely about machines becoming smarter. It is about what humanity may become if technology advances faster than moral responsibility. The encyclical repeatedly frames AI as a challenge to human dignity, justice, and ethical responsibility, particularly when powerful institutions or governments use technology without sufficient limits.
One of his sharpest criticisms focuses on warfare. Pope Leo condemned the use of AI in military systems and warned against an artificial intelligence arms race.
“No algorithm can make war morally acceptable,” the Pope wrote. He argued that reducing human control over weapons lowers moral restraint and risks making violence easier, faster, and more impersonal. He warned AI could accelerate conflict by “lowering the threshold for resorting to violence, transforming defense into threat prediction and thus reducing victims to data.”
To Pope Leo, technology that distances people from the human consequences of war risks making suffering feel abstract.
The Fear of “New Digital Slaveries”
Perhaps the most striking part of Pope Leo’s warning is his comparison between artificial intelligence and slavery.
While the encyclical largely focused on AI, it also included one of the Vatican’s strongest apologies for the Catholic Church’s historic role in slavery. Reflecting on human suffering, Pope Leo wrote that it was “impossible not to feel deep sorrow when contemplating the immense suffering and humiliation endured by so many,” and he “sincerely asked for pardon” in the name of the Church.
But the Pope did not discuss slavery simply as history. He argued that society could unknowingly normalize new forms of exploitation through artificial intelligence, both in how technologies are built and how they are used.
He warned of “new digital slaveries,” drawing direct moral parallels between historical slavery and modern technological exploitation. According to Pope Leo, humanity may once again face a moral crossroads in which systems of exploitation become normalized before society fully understands the consequences.
He also warned about “digital colonialism,” suggesting that powerful technological systems could mirror older forms of domination and inequality associated with colonial eras. In earlier remarks, Pope Leo had already argued that modern AI developments require safeguards similar to those created during the industrial revolution to protect human dignity and labor. Shortly after his election in May 2025, he explained that his papal name was inspired by Pope Leo XIII, whose encyclical Rerum Novarum addressed the upheaval of industrialization and workers’ rights. Pope Leo XIV argued that artificial intelligence represents another major industrial turning point that poses “new challenges for the defence of human dignity, justice and labour.”
In an unusual move, Pope Leo personally presented the encyclical at the Vatican alongside artificial intelligence experts, including Christopher Olah, co-founder of the American AI company Anthropic.
Olah offered unusually candid comments about the pressures facing AI companies.
He said every AI lab, including his own, operates “inside a set of incentives and constraints that can sometimes conflict with doing the right thing.”
Olah also pushed back against the idea that computer scientists alone should control the discussion surrounding artificial intelligence.
“The questions raised by AI are bigger than the AI research community, not just in their implications, but also in their nature,” he said.
That perspective appears closely aligned with Pope Leo’s broader message that AI governance is not merely a technical issue but a moral and human one.
The Pope even issued what he called a “special appeal” to technology developers, warning them of the ethical burden they carry.
“Developers bear a particular ethical and spiritual responsibility, for every design choice reflects a vision of humanity,” he said.
The Vatican’s New AI Commission
Pope Leo is not limiting his concerns to speeches. He has approved the creation of an Interdicasterial Commission on Artificial Intelligence, a Vatican body designed to coordinate the Church’s response to AI and its growing societal effects.
According to Vatican documents, the commission was approved because of AI’s rapid acceleration, its possible effects “on human beings and on humanity as a whole,” and the Church’s concern for protecting “the dignity of every human person.” The commission will study artificial intelligence, encourage dialogue between Vatican institutions, coordinate information sharing, and help shape policies on AI use within the Holy See.
The body brings together representatives from seven Vatican institutions, including offices focused on faith, education, communication, science, social sciences, and human development. Its mission is collaborative and long term, reflecting Pope Leo’s belief that artificial intelligence touches nearly every dimension of modern life.
Whether Pope Leo’s warning ultimately changes the trajectory of AI remains uncertain. Yet for a leader whose voice reaches more than a billion Catholics and countless others worldwide, his message is unmistakable: artificial intelligence may offer extraordinary benefits, but unless humanity places moral limits on its development, society risks surrendering human dignity to systems it no longer controls.
Considering the reach of the Catholic Church, this message could influence the AI market considerably in coming years.
