Pope says AI must be ‘disarmed’ to stop control, discrimination, and death | Story

Leo, in his first letter, insists ownership of AI data should not be left in private hands.

Pope Leo XIV has called for the “disarmament” of artificial intelligence (AI), warning that “new forms of slavery” are associated with its rise.

The head of the Catholic Church warned on Monday against “the race to run the most powerful algorithms and the largest datasets,” driven by “the desire to gain political or commercial power”.

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His concerns about AI were presented in his first book, titled “Magnifica Humanitas” (Magnificent Humanity), in private at the Vatican. These books are one of the most advanced teaching methods from the pope to the 1.4 billion members of the church.

Leo insisted that the ownership of AI data should not be left in private hands, called on policymakers to protect workers’ rights and protect children from technology, and encouraged the cooling of competition between AI companies.

“What is needed is political intervention that can slow things down when things are going well,” Leo said.

The Catholic leader continued to call for “strong laws, independent supervision, well-informed users and a politics that does not abdicate its responsibility”.

“AI now wants to be disarmed, to be freed from the mind that turns it into a tool of control, exclusion, and death,” he said. “Like nuclear power, it should be universal.”

Monday’s much-anticipated speech, with nearly 43,000 words, has been in the works since Leo’s election as pope more than a year ago.

‘Push the right way’

Pope Leo issued the letter alongside AI experts, including Christopher Olah, co-founder of the US tech giant Anthropic.

Anthropic is in a legal battle with the United States military after it objected to the use of its technology in autonomous killing wars and mass surveillance.

At the presentation, Olah said AI companies work “within incentives and constraints that sometimes conflict with doing the right thing”.

He received comments from external actors such as the Catholic Church to “push events for the better”, saying that “the questions that AI is asking are bigger than the AI ​​research group”.

Olah highlighted three areas that he said needed urgent attention: the risk of job losses, the need to ensure that the benefits of AI are spread across the world, and the unresolved question of how to interpret such complex and sometimes opaque systems.

The doctrine of ‘Just War’ is ‘outdated

In the letter, Leo also blasted AI-led weapons, saying it was “unacceptable to make lethal decisions” for the technology.

Leo has repeatedly clashed with the White House over the US-Israel war on Iran and the use of religion to justify the conflict.

The idea of ​​a “just war”, which has recently been launched by the administration of US President Donald Trump, was “outdated”, Leo wrote, adding that “there is no way to make war legitimate”.