Pope Leo says AI threatens humanity, ‘poses challenges to human dignity’

Pope Leo XIV has issued a stark warning about artificial intelligence, declaring it a threat to humanity that demands urgent global action including stringent regulations on Big Tech.

“Today, the church offers its trove of social teaching to respond to another industrial revolution and to innovations in the field of artificial intelligence that pose challenges to human dignity, justice and labor,” Leo told a roomful of cardinals in the Vatican in one of his first major addresses as pontiff.

Leo’s comments, which were delivered during his first formal audience with the College of Cardinals in the Synod Hall of the Vatican on May 10, were reported by the Wall Street Journal.

The Vatican this week is hosting executives from firms including IBM, Cohere, Anthropic and Palantir for a major summit on AI ethics.

Leo is expected to issue a written message but has not yet held private meetings with tech CEOs.

Microsoft President Brad Smith is expected to meet Vatican officials later this month, and Google is in discussions for a future audience with the pope.

By 2040, artificial intelligence is projected to automate or significantly transform 50% to 60% of jobs globally, with some estimates suggesting up to 80% could be impacted by 2050.

McKinsey forecasts that 30% of US jobs could be automated by 2030, while Goldman Sachs estimates up to 300 million jobs worldwide — about 25% of the global labor force — may be affected.

Labor-intensive roles like construction, maintenance, and skilled trades are expected to remain the most resilient.

Just days into his papacy, the first American pope made clear that grappling with AI will be central to his agenda.

In naming himself after Pope Leo XIII — the 19th-century “Pope of the Workers” — Leo XIV signaled a direct link between the upheavals of the industrial era and today’s digital revolution.

The 267th pope is positioning himself as a moral counterweight to tech companies that have spent years courting the Vatican.

The Church under both Francis and now Leo has advocated for legally binding global regulations to rein in unchecked AI development.

“Leo XIV wants the worlds of science and politics to immediately tackle this problem without allowing scientific progress to advance with arrogance, harming those who have to submit to its power,” Cardinal Giuseppe Versaldi told the Journal.

The push for AI oversight continues the work of Pope Francis, who became increasingly vocal in his later years about the dangers of emerging technologies.

Francis, who once joked he barely knew how to use a computer, gradually evolved into a leading voice on the topic — warning of a “technological dictatorship” and calling AI “fascinating and terrifying.”

In 2020, the Vatican published the “Rome Call for AI Ethics,” backed by Microsoft and IBM, among others. It urged developers to design AI systems that respect privacy, human rights and non-discrimination. But some tech giants, including Google and OpenAI, have so far declined to endorse it.

Francis’ involvement grew after the infamous AI-generated image of him in a white puffer jacket went viral in 2023, demonstrating the potential for AI to distort reality.

He later cautioned world leaders that “choices by machines” must not replace human decision-making.

Now, Pope Leo — who holds a mathematics degree and a deeper familiarity with tech than his predecessor — is expected to take the Church’s advocacy a step further. Vatican officials and clergy see a moral imperative to act as a global conscience in the face of what they view as a potentially dehumanizing force.

“These tools shouldn’t be demonized, but they need to be regulated,” said Cardinal Versaldi.

“The question is, who will regulate them? It’s not credible for them to be regulated by their makers. There needs to be a superior authority.”