Pope Leo terms AI a sin, says it may spark worldwide conflict

Pope Leo XIV has unveiled his vision for the AI age in his first encyclical, urging governments to tighten oversight of artificial intelligence and restricting machines to make life-and-death decisions. He says AI should serve humanity rather than profit.

In Short

• Pope Leo says humanity must choose AI to serve the common good
• The Pope insists machines must never make life-and-death decisions
• Leo says unchecked AI could concentrate power, spread misinformation and deepen inequality

Pope Leo XIV has issued an artificial intelligence warning for the world at large, falling shy of calling the viral technology a sin if it is misused. The warning comes through the Pope’s first encyclical AI, the Magnifica Humanitas, a manifesto detailing the merits and demerits of models like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini straight from the Vatican.

The pontiff has cautioned that AI, if guided by motives of profit rather than human values, could fuel conflict, deepen inequality and erode human dignity across the world. The Pope has urged governments to impose stricter oversight on AI and warned against allowing a handful of powerful technology companies to shape humanity's future.

While Pope Leo stopped short of calling AI a sin, he repeatedly warned about the forces shaping its development. He criticised what he described as a modern-day “Babel Syndrome”, driven by the “idolatry of profit”, where the pursuit of efficiency, power and commercial gain can take precedence over human wellbeing. Such a system, he argues, could risk reducing human beings to data points, performance metrics and economic outputs rather than individuals.

Pope warns that AI is “never neutral” because it reflects the priorities and interests of those who build and control it.

According to Pope Leo, humanity right now has a choice between choosing one path that leads towards a new “Tower of Babel” or using technology to serve the common good. Referring to the biblical story, the Pope has argued that the real danger is not AI itself but a model of progress that prioritises power, control and self-interest over human dignity and responsibility.

“Technology has the power to heal, connect, educate and protect our common home,” Pope Leo wrote. “But it can also divide, exclude and generate new forms of injustice.” The Pope argues that AI is already influencing decisions, shaping public debate and changing how people see themselves and one another, giving technology an unprecedented influence over everyday life.

Meanwhile the Pope reserves his strongest warnings against the growing use of AI in warfare. He has argued that machines should never be allowed to make life-and-death decisions and called for strict ethical limits on autonomous weapons and AI-powered military systems. “No algorithm can make war morally acceptable,” he wrote, stressing that human beings must remain accountable for every military decision. “

According to Pope Leo, technologies that allow attacks to be carried out remotely, risk making it easier to overlook the suffering of civilians and lowering the moral barriers to conflict. He suggests that autonomous weapons and AI-assisted military systems should be subject to the “most rigorous ethical constraints” and insisted that lethal decisions must never be delegated to machines.

“No algorithm can make war morally acceptable,” he wrote, adding that every military action must have a clear and identifiable chain of human responsibility.

Beyond security concerns, the encyclical also highlights the broader social risks posed by AI. Leo has warned that opaque algorithms could influence access to jobs, credit, education and public services while potentially reinforcing existing inequalities. He has also raised concerns about AI-generated misinformation, mass surveillance and the growing concentration of power among a small group of technology companies that control vast amounts of data and digital infrastructure.

Despite the warnings, the Pope has made it clear that he is not calling for AI to be rejected. Instead, he has urged governments, businesses and civil society to put safeguards in place and ensure the technology is developed responsibly. The goal, he said, should be to make AI serve humanity and not the other way around.

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