Pope Leo warns AI could make society less human

Pope Leo XIV released his first major encyclical of the generative AI era, Magnifica Humanitas, warning that artificial intelligence could hollow out work, concentrate wealth, and even “less human” civilization. The document also calls for “disarming” AI, warn

Rome woke up Monday to a new papal message—one aimed squarely at the future, and one delivered with unusually direct alarm.

Pope Leo XIV released Magnifica Humanitas. an 82-page teaching known as an encyclical. warning that the rise of artificial intelligence could make civilization “less human.” He framed the danger as more than an economic shift. In his view. AI is an “anthropological” crisis—touching the meaning and purpose of humanity—at a time when technology is accelerating faster than moral debate.

The tone of the document is not isolated to technology alone. Pope Leo has repeatedly clashed with the Trump administration over the Iran war and over some U.S. officials’ religious justification for it. In this encyclical, he dismissed the argument that the conflict was a necessary preemptive measure for American safety. “Today. more than ever. without prejudice to the right to self-defense in the strictest sense. it is important to reaffirm that the ‘just war’ theory. which has all too often been used to justify any kind of war. is now outdated. ” he wrote.

Then came a different kind of rupture—an admission of the Vatican’s past. Francis. who appears in the reporting as part of the encyclical’s broader Vatican moment. issued a first-ever apology for the Vatican’s role in facilitating and justifying the transatlantic slave trade. calling it “a wound in Christian memory.” “For this. in the name of the Church. I sincerely ask for pardon. ” he wrote.

But the majority of Magnifica Humanitas is devoted to AI.

Pope Leo argues that AI risks hollowing out work, concentrating wealth, and reducing people to systems driven by data and efficiency rather than dignity and morality. “The pressing duty,” Leo wrote, is “to remain profoundly human.”

He called for the “disarming” of AI. warning the technology could fuel “a race for ever more powerful algorithms and larger datasets. driven by the desire to secure geopolitical or commercial dominance.” In a line designed to land hard with policymakers and the public alike. the encyclical states: “There exists no algorithm capable of making war morally acceptable.”.

That warning comes as militaries around the world rapidly integrate AI into weapons systems. The reporting notes that U.S. forces were conducting exercises in Morocco and that they showed the growing use of AI-assisted targeting systems and autonomous technologies. including systems linked to Maven. the Pentagon’s AI platform.

The Vatican’s presentation of the encyclical also carried a remarkable human detail: Christopher Olah, a co-founder of the AI company Anthropic, was there in person on Monday alongside senior church officials.

Olah said AI companies work “inside a set of incentives and constraints that can sometimes conflict with doing the right thing. ” and he welcomed input from outside—including from the Catholic Church—to help steer development “in a better direction.” “The questions raised by AI are bigger than the AI research community. ” he said.

Pope Leo said he accepted an invitation from Olah “to walk together, to listen and to speak and together to find the way for humanity,” and he expressed confidence that, “together, we can discern the major questions of our time, and so, the future of humanity.”

Anthropic. the reporting adds. has often presented itself as safety-conscious and “human-first.” Yet the Trump administration recently listed it as a supply-chain risk over its refusal to let the Pentagon use its technology in automated lethal systems or mass domestic surveillance. Even with that refusal, the models remain integrated in military and intelligence applications, as the reporting describes.

When asked whether Anthropic’s “human-centered” reputation influenced the Vatican’s decision to engage with the company, Cardinal Michael Czerny—one of the Vatican officials who helped present the document—replied: “I’m sure it did.”

Czerny stressed, however, that dialogue should not be mistaken for endorsement. “We dialogue with anyone,” he said. “We don’t endorse.”

In interviews tied to the encyclical’s launch, Czerny described the emotional weight behind the Vatican’s message. “We’re overwhelmed,” the cardinal told CBS News. “We feel like we actually have nothing to say … and this paralyzes us.”

He also addressed the fear that people might start treating AI as a substitute for God. Asked whether the pope worried about that, Czerny answered: “Yes … many things become substitutes for God and we call them idols.”

That language returns to the encyclical’s core insistence: the risks are not just technological. They are spiritual, too—what happens to people when decision-making, truth-shaping, and even moral judgment get outsourced to machines.

Pope Leo’s warning echoes an older transformation. When the Industrial Revolution reshaped labor and capital, he cautioned in his remarks, so too is the AI revolution reshaping humanity itself.

Pope Leo XIV Magnifica Humanitas artificial intelligence encyclical Vatican apology slave trade disarming AI AI war Maven Pentagon platform Anthropic Christopher Olah