Pope Leo warns of AI apocalypse, urges strict global ethics oversight

Pope Leo XIV has made artificial intelligence a central moral focus of his papacy, addressing the topic extensively in his major theological encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas.

Leo, who in May called on world leaders for global rules to oversee the industry, renewed his warnings about AI at a Vatican meeting on Thursday and is expected to do so again on Friday in a speech at the Paris headquarters of the UN's culture and education body, UNESCO.

"This is not happening on day zero for the Holy See," Rev. Paolo Benanti, a leading Vatican advisor on AI issues, told Reuters, referring to recent calls for a slowdown that have been endorsed by the CEOs of AI firms Anthropic, OpenAI and xAI, among others.

"The transformative power of AI ... could produce a magnitude of societal changes that are very hard to predict," said Benanti, an Italian academic who recently took part in the AI summit hosted by Britain's King Charles.

The priest said he could not reveal details about the contents of the summit's confidential discussions.

In a speech to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences on Thursday, Leo said AI can benefit humanity, but it has introduced "new dangers to security and international peace."

He urged global leaders to "govern wisely" in overseeing the technology.

Rather than viewing technology as inherently evil, the Vatican has emphasized that unchecked development poses profound systemic risks to humanity. Key concerns raised by Pope Leo include.

Strong warnings against relinquishing battlefield decisions to machines, noting that AI lowers the psychological threshold for conflict and makes automated warfare far easier to deploy.

Parallels to the Industrial Revolution, with warnings that rapid, unbridled automation could displace workers on a massive scale, leaving people in "forced inactivity" and deepening social inequality.

Demands to "disarm" artificial intelligence by breaking monopolistic tech control and ensuring algorithms remain subject to rigorous ethical constraints, international oversight, and human agency.

As reported, the Vatican continues to push global leaders and technology executives to prioritize human dignity and the common good over corporate profit margins or military arms races.