POPE LEO PUSHES AI REGULATION INTO GLOBAL POLITICS

Pope Leo XIV used the first major document of his papacy to call for stronger global regulation of artificial intelligence, warning that unchecked AI development could deepen inequality, weaken democracy, and lower the threshold for war. The encyclical, Magnifica humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence, was released Monday by the Vatican.

The document places AI inside the Catholic Church’s tradition of social teaching, comparing the current moment to earlier periods of industrial change. Vatican News said the encyclical was signed May 15, the 135th anniversary of Pope Leo XIII’s Rerum novarum, a major 1891 text on labor and social conditions. The new document argues that technology is not inherently evil, but also not neutral, because it reflects the choices of those who design, fund, regulate, and deploy it.

Pope Leo’s central concern is the concentration of technological power. The Associated Press reported that the encyclical calls for legal frameworks, independent oversight, and public accountability, especially where AI systems affect work, children, data ownership, information systems, and private-sector competition. The document warns that profit-driven development could place major decisions in the hands of companies whose influence may exceed that of some governments.

The sharpest section focuses on war. Reuters reported that Pope Leo warned some weapons systems had advanced beyond meaningful human control and that AI could help normalize “unending war.” AP also reported that the pope argued lethal decisions must not be left to machines. The message places autonomous weapons and military AI at the center of the Vatican’s early policy agenda under Leo.

The document also speaks directly to labor and inequality. Vatican News summarized the encyclical as a call to protect human dignity, truth, work, social justice, and peace in the age of algorithms. That framing matters because AI policy is often treated as a technical issue, while the Vatican is presenting it as a social and legal issue involving workers, families, governments, and democratic institutions.

The launch also brought the Vatican into direct contact with the technology industry. AP reported that Anthropic co-founder Christopher Olah took part in the Vatican event, while Reuters reported that the pope urged AI companies to slow competitive pressure when it conflicts with human welfare. The presence of a major AI figure underscored the Vatican’s attempt to address the companies building frontier systems, not only governments regulating them.

Pope Leo also used the document to address historical responsibility. AP reported that the encyclical included an apology connected to the Catholic Church’s historical complicity in slavery, drawing a moral link between past institutional failures and current technological systems that could exploit or dehumanize people if left unchecked.

The encyclical does not create law, but it could influence political debate. Papal documents are addressed primarily to Catholics but are also intended for wider public discussion, and this one arrives as governments, companies, militaries, and civil society groups debate how far AI regulation should go. For Pope Leo, the question is not whether AI continues to develop. It is whether law, ethics, and human oversight can keep pace with it.

Fact-check date: 25 May 2026
Sources: Vatican News, Reuters, Associated Press

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