Vatican City – Pope Leo XIV on Monday called for strong regulation of artificial intelligence and for its developers to work for the common good rather than profit, in a wide-ranging manifesto on how to safeguard humanity as the technology impacts everything from work to war.
“Magnifica Humanitas” (Magnificent Humanity), Leo’s first encyclical, had been eagerly anticipated since the first American-born pope announced, days after his election, that he considered AI to be the greatest challenge facing humanity today.
In the text, León denounced the “culture of power” that drives the race for AI, especially in the development of increasingly sophisticated methods of remote warfare. He declared that “it is not permissible” to entrust irreversible and lethal decisions to AI systems, which opens another point of friction between the American pope and the government of the president of the United States, donald trumpwhich has worked aggressively to deregulate AI development.
Experts from the technology industry, academia and Catholic morality pointed out that the document will likely become a reference in the debate on AI, a point of reference for both public policy makers and researchers and ordinary citizens. It comes at a time when almost daily advances in technology are triggering increased concerns about AI replacing human jobs and even replacing human intelligence.
“This lends itself to people who are at the forefront of these tools and can see the incredible things they are capable of asking questions about their own ‘what does it mean to be human?’” said Taylor Black, an AI executive at Microsoft and director of the AI institute at the Catholic University of America.
Pope criticizes AI companies even as he hosts Anthropic
The pope was scheduled to present the text on Monday at an event in the Vatican in which the co-founder of Anthropic, which is currently immersed in a legal battle with the Trump administration over access to its AI technology, would participate. The Vatican decided to engage Anthropic as part of an effort over the past decade to engage in dialogue with Silicon Valley about the human cost of AI.
1/100 | This has been the first year of Leo XIV’s pontificate: 100 images of key moments. The historical moment when the conclave elected Leo XIV as the new pope. – ANDREJ ISAKOVIC
And yet, in his text, León repeatedly attacked the concentration of power and data in the hands of so few people in the private sector as a danger, especially for children and the most vulnerable, and called for external regulation of their work.
“It is not enough to generically invoke ethics; we need adequate legal frameworks, independent surveillance, user education, a policy that does not renounce its task,” he wrote. “A more moral AI would be of no use if this morality is decided by a few.”
León appealed several times to AI developers and the political leaders responsible for regulating them to simply slow down and reflect on what they are doing. He urged them to follow ethical and spiritual guidelines to make the decision to work not for their own profit or power, but for the betterment of humanity.
AI competitors OpenAI and Anthropic are the second and third most valuable private companies in the United States, each valued at hundreds of billions of dollars, more than the GDP of many nations.
Experts say that the text will become a reference
In a methodical text, the pope, who graduated in mathematics, traced the history of the social doctrine of the Catholic Church and applied its central concepts—justice, solidarity, the dignity of work and the universal destination of resources—to the digital revolution.
“I am convinced that this will prove to be a defining document for our era, a profound and prescient document,” said Paolo Carozza, a law professor at Notre Dame Law School and chairman of Meta’s supervisory board.
“Pope Leo offers a clear, comprehensive and coherent voice that urges us to take responsibility for building a world in which technology serves human beings instead of degrading them,” he said.
In his most compelling chapters, León denounced how AI had helped accelerate the “normalization of war” by desensitizing people to its cost. He did not mention specific conflicts, but cited “composed imperialisms, between powers that want to preserve their primacy and powers that aspire to conquer it.”
He demanded transparency and accountability from AI developers so that the chain of command in decision-making when ordering attacks with AI weaponry is always known. He declared that the Catholic Church’s “just war” theory, which provides specific criteria for when the use of force can be justified, was now “outdated” given the technological innovations of warfare.
A text in the social justice tradition of the Church
Leo signed the text on May 15, the 135th anniversary of the publication of “Rerum Novarum” (Of New Things), the most important teaching document of Leo’s hero and namesake, Pope Leo XIII. That document addressed workers’ rights, the limits of capitalism, and the obligations that states and employers owed to workers as the Industrial Revolution progressed.
It became the foundation of modern Catholic social thought, and the current pope cited it at the beginning of his pontificate in relation to the AI revolution, which he believes raises the same existential questions that the Industrial Revolution raised more than a century ago. “Magnifica Humanitas” thus becomes the most recent chapter in a century-long story of popes adapting “Rerum Novarum” to the social issues of their time, often dwelling on the dignity of work for human flourishing.
AI is evoking both existential fears and a utopian vision amid an intensifying debate over whether it will become a catalyst that enriches humanity or a technological toxin that dulls human intelligence while eliminating millions of well-paying jobs.
“The objective of obtaining greater benefits cannot justify decisions that systematically sacrifice employment, because the human person is an end and not a means, and the economic order must remain subordinated to their dignity and the common good,” León wrote.
1 / 13 | Between faith and multitudes: Pope Leo XIV tours Africa on an 11-day apostolic journey. A woman kneeled in prayer as Pope Leo XIV arrived at Yaounde-Nsimalen International Airport, Cameroon on the third day of his 11-day apostolic trip to Africa. -Andrew Medichini
Leo extended his concern for defending human dignity at work to issue the first papal apology in history for the Holy See’s own role in legitimizing slavery.
Previous popes have apologized for Christians’ involvement in the transatlantic slave trade. But no pope has publicly acknowledged, much less apologized, for the role that popes themselves played in granting European sovereigns explicit authority to subdue and enslave “infidels.”
A decade of dialogue with Silicon Valley
Vatican officials declined to say who exactly contributed to Leo’s encyclical. But Vatican and Church officials have been engaged in a dialogue with Silicon Valley technology companies for a decade. Toward the end of his pontificate, Pope Francis began to speak out more about AI and the risks it poses to humanity.
The decision to include Anthropic in the Vatican launch was criticized by some who saw it as a papal seal of approval for the AI firm.
In February, the Trump administration ordered all US agencies to stop using Anthropic’s technology after it refused to allow unrestricted use by the US military. Anthropic, which bills itself as the AI company that puts safety and risk mitigation at the forefront of its research, is suing the government.
Brian Boyd, U.S. faith liaison for the nonprofit Future of Life Institute, interpreted the inclusion of Anthropic co-founder Christopher Olah as akin to a papal audience with a head of state, and not an endorsement.
“I think it’s more of a recognition (that) this is an extremely powerful company that is currently winning this race to replace human workers,” Boyd said.
Anthropic is a “huge corporation that is taking on enormous risk and responsibility,” Boyd continued, but said the company has “demonstrated genuine goodwill and integrity and interest in the dialogue.”