The Pope’s new AI grenade

Mass warning

When you start a new job, most folks focus on first learning the basics, like how to work the espresso machine, or how not to hit everyone with a brutal ‘thanks’ reply-all.

But not Pope Leo XIV.

Barely a year into the top job, he’s just published the Catholic Church’s first full doctrine on AI via a 42,300-word Magnifica humanitas (Magnificent humanity):

So here are five quotes you need to know (and why), starting with… 

1. “The primary choice is not between a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to technology, but rather between constructing Babel or rebuilding Jerusalem” 

Leo here is using the allegory of building a city to compare the two AI paths ahead:

• The Tower of Babel comes when we build god-like systems out of pride and without moral limits — he argues that just like the Genesis tower to heaven, tech hubris now risks driving humanity to confusion, division, then collapse

• But Nehemiah’s rebuilding of Jerusalem, he says, comes when tech serves — rather than dominates or replaces — humanity and some higher purpose: an AI that builds rather than erodes community, fraternity, dignity, and moral order.

It’s pretty clear this Pope fears AI is now taking more of a Babel bend, but the very existence of his essay is also proof Leo believes that a) progress is inevitable, and b) it has huge potential for good: so he’s really trying to reframe the entire AI debate beyond the binary “should we use it” to a deeper “what kind of world are we building with it”.

2. “Today, the convergence of automation, robotics and AI is rapidly transforming the very structure of work”

Leo is really warning of a perfect storm that could fundamentally rewrite the nature and meaning of work itself: how we as a society structure our time, purpose, and dignity.

And this really reflects the Catholic teaching that work gives us purpose rather than just serving an economic end — that might be why his piece calls for reskilling, dignity, and safeguards, rather than (say) ideas like Universal Basic Income that replace work with stipends. It’s about AI helping fulfil — rather than strip us of — that purpose.

3. “New forms of slavery are fueled by economic chains and digital infrastructures”

This is where Leo gets spicier, going beyond familiar warnings of bias or job loss to accuse Big Tech of generating new evils — he cites servitude right across the supply chain, from child labour in cobalt mines and poorly-paid data labellers, to those trapped by gig economy algos, addictive design, plus endless surveillance and performance monitoring!

He even describes data extraction as a “new face of colonialism”, in a bit that’s eerily similar to Zambia’s recent push-back on US efforts to trade healthcare support for data.

4. “It is not permissible to entrust lethal or otherwise irreversible decisions to artificial systems” 

“Pope calls for peace!” is hardly a fresh headline these days, but the why here is intriguing. 

While some argue AI could lead to fewer war casualties, Leo argues it all just renders war “more impersonal, lowering the threshold for resorting to violence”.

But rather than call for a complete moratorium on AI in the military, Leo suggests three fixes: i) a clear chain of accountability that doesn’t absolve humans from blame, ii) a commitment to human-in-the-loop systems, and iii) a shared international framework.

5. “Every frontier AI lab operates inside a set of incentives and constraints that can sometimes conflict with doing the right thing: the pressure to stay commercially viable and to stay at the research frontier; geopolitical pressure”

Wait, that’s not the Pope. Rather, that’s Anthropic co-founder Christopher Olah, Big Tech’s only rep to attend Monday’s encyclical at the Vatican. Why?

He’s not Catholic (he’s atheist), but Olah’s remarks echo many of Leo’s concerns, arguing AI companies cannot and should not regulate themselves: any race easily becomes a race to the bottom, where morality and safety are sacrificed on the altar of ‘progress’. 

And that emphasis on geopolitical pressure is pretty grim, too: go too far and you join the dark side. But go too slow and you just cede tech superiority to that very same dark side.

Sound even smarter:

• President Trump has recently bickered with Pope Leo XIV (the first US-born pope) over the pontiff’s criticisms of US wars. We’re curious if Trump will see this latest papal missive as a dunk on US tech.