Pope Leo XIV says artificial intelligence must be “disarmed” as world leaders and private companies increase the technology’s use in many human activities, including war.On Monday, in the first encyclical of his papacy, titled Magnifica humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence, the pope warned against “a race for ever more powerful algorithms and larger datasets” driven by “the desire to secure geopolitical or commercial dominance”.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of listThe leader of the Catholic Church presented the encyclical at the Vatican alongside AI experts, including Christopher Olah, the cofounder of the United States-based AI giant Anthropic.Encyclicals are letters written by the pope and sent to Catholic bishops. In recent decades, they have become one of the highest forms of teaching from the pope to the church’s 1.4 billion members.What did the pope say in his first encyclical, and why is it significant? Here’s what we know:What did the pope say about AI?Since he was elected in May 2025, Leo has made the topic of artificial intelligence a cornerstone of his papacy.According to the Vatican News, he spoke in November about how the technology must be used in a responsible manner in the healthcare sector. A month later, he said AI should not hinder new generations and added that it is important “to restore and strengthen” young people’s “confidence in the human ability to guide the development of new technologies, such as artificial intelligence, and not see this development as following an inevitable path”. Advertisement But in making AI the thrust of his first encyclical, the pope has turned his concerns into religious …
