Pope Leo XIV’s New Warning: He Now Calls for “Disarming” Artificial Intelligence

• Pope Calls for Artificial Intelligence Regulation
• Vatican Warns About Wars
• Leo XIV Demands Regulation

Artificial intelligence has once again moved to the center of global debate following the publication of Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical, a document in which the pontiff addresses the ethical, political, and social risks of technological progress.

In his message, the leader of the Catholic Church called for slowing the rapid pace of AI development and warned about the danger that this tool could end up fueling conflicts, wars, and inequality of power around the world.

The document, titled Magnifica Humanitas (“Magnificent Humanity”), marks the official stance of the first American pope on one of today’s most sensitive issues: the uncontrolled growth of artificial intelligence and its influence over governments, companies, and entire societies.

Pope Leo XIV Called to “Disarm AI” and Curb Its Concentration of Power

In the text, Pope Leo XIV argued that artificial intelligence cannot remain “concentrated in the hands of only a few people,” and issued one of the document’s strongest statements: he called to “disarm AI.”

The pontiff clarified that this “does not mean rejecting technology, but preventing it from dominating humanity,” while also stating that “simply regulating it is insufficient.”

• Why it matters: The statement represents one of the most direct criticisms from the Vatican toward the current development of artificial intelligence, especially in a context where major technology companies are leading an accelerated race to dominate this industry.

During the event at the Vatican, Olah publicly acknowledged that even technology companies face internal ethical dilemmas.

“All AI labs — including ours — operate within a set of incentives and constraints that can sometimes conflict with doing the right thing,” he said.

He also highlighted the importance of having outside voices capable of questioning the direction of this technology.

“It is enormously important that there are people outside those incentives” who “pay close attention, are willing to say difficult things, and be sincere and thoughtful critics.”

The Vatican Compared the AI Revolution to the Industrial Revolution

The document was signed on May 15, a date chosen to coincide with the 135th anniversary of a historic encyclical written by Pope Leo XIII in 1891, focused on labor rights during the Industrial Revolution.

However, Pope Leo XIV said the current moment requires new responses to modern technological changes.

“We cannot simply limit ourselves to repeating his enlightening teachings,” the pope wrote. “We must ask God for the wisdom to interpret the great trends of our time, particularly technological advances.”

The pontiff also wanted to make clear that he does not reject science or modern progress. In one of the most discussed passages, he stated that “technology should not be considered, in itself, as an antagonistic force against humanity.”

Even so, he insisted that the problem appears when technological development remains in the hands of powerful private interests without sufficient government oversight.

“A more moral AI is not enough if that morality is determined by a few,” he wrote.

Pope Leo XIV Warned About Autonomous Weapons and AI-Driven Wars

One of the strongest sections of the encyclical addresses the military use of artificial intelligence.

The pope lamented “the growing ease with which autonomous weapons systems can be deployed,” a situation that, he said, makes war more “feasible” and less subject to human control.

He also called for strict ethical limits on the military development of these technologies.

“The use of AI in war must be subject to the strictest ethical restrictions, to ensure respect for human dignity and the sanctity of life, and to avoid a race to develop these types of weapons,” he said.

The pontiff also issued a warning about the current global climate

“Humanity is sliding toward a violent culture of power, where peace no longer appears as a responsibility to assume, but as a fragile interval between conflicts,” he wrote.

Toward the end of the document, Leo XIV insisted that the challenge of artificial intelligence is not only technological.

“Our task today is not only ethical or technical. It is ecological in the deepest sense, because it refers to a new dimension of our common home,” he said. “AI is already an environment in which we are immersed, as well as a force with which we must interact. For this reason, simply regulating it is insufficient; it must be disarmed, welcoming, and accessible.”

With this encyclical, Leo XIV makes clear that artificial intelligence will be one of the central issues of his pontificate.

The pope not only called for greater artificial intelligence regulation, but also for a global debate over the ethical limits of a technology that, he warned, is already transforming politics, war, and daily life much faster than societies can control.

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SOURCE: NBC News