Pope Leo XIV has issued a stark warning about the rapid development of artificial intelligence, cautioning that it could lead humanity down a path of endless conflict. This stance places him on a collision course with US President Donald Trump, whose administration is aggressively pushing to deregulate the technology.
Pope's Encyclical on AI and War
In his first major encyclical, titled Magnifica Humanitas (Magnificent Humanity), Pope Leo urged governments to closely regulate AI development. He warned that technological advances could spread misinformation, fuel conflicts, and should never be entrusted with irreversible lethal decisions. "What is needed is a more active political involvement that is capable of slowing things down when everything is accelerating," Leo wrote in the document addressed to the Catholic Church's 1.4 billion members.
Rift with Trump Intensifies
The Pope's impassioned appeal comes amid a deepening rift with President Trump, triggered by Leo's critical stance on the US and Israeli war on Iran. Tensions escalated in April when Trump posted and later deleted an AI-generated image depicting himself as a Jesus-like figure healing a sick man. Hours earlier, Trump launched a tirade against the Pope on Truth Social, calling him "WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy." Senator John Kennedy also condemned what he called the president's "holy war" against the Pope.
Condemnation of Modern Conflicts
Leo's encyclical condemned the number of brutal wars worldwide, lamented the erosion of democracy, and warned that profits from the arms industry fuel conflict. "The past 60 years have been marked by conflicts of astonishing brutality, often affecting civilian populations on a massive scale," he wrote. "Humanity is slipping into a violent culture of power, where peace no longer appears as a responsibility to be taken on, but as a fragile interval between conflicts."
Rejection of Just War Theory
In a significant move, Pope Leo repudiated the just war theory, a doctrine the Church has used since the fifth century to evaluate conflicts. Trump administration officials, including Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic, have invoked the doctrine to defend the Iran war. Leo wrote: "The 'just war' theory, which has all too often been used to justify any kind of war, is now outdated. The use of force, violence and weapons reflects a relational poverty that always has disastrous consequences for civilian populations."
Appeal for Workers' Rights
Leo also invoked his predecessor Leo XIII, who published a landmark encyclical in 1891 calling for better pay and conditions for labourers. He urged policymakers to protect workers' rights and decried "new forms of slavery" endured by factory workers producing technological devices for AI. "In some regions of the world, children and adolescents work in dangerous conditions, crushing the materials from which rare earth elements are extracted," the Pope said. "The bodies of these people are scarred, injured and worn down so that computational flow may continue uninterruptedly."
Apology for Church's Historical Sins
Leo acknowledged that the Catholic Church did not forcefully condemn transatlantic slavery until the 19th century and made a personal apology. "This constitutes a wound in Christian memory," he wrote. "For this, in the name of the Church, I sincerely ask for pardon."
