{"id":430867,"date":"2026-01-24T19:42:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T19:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/430867\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T19:42:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T19:42:09","slug":"pope-leo-warns-of-overly-affectionate-ai-chatbots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/430867\/","title":{"rendered":"Pope Leo warns of \u2018overly affectionate\u2019 AI chatbots"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Beware of the AI chatbot that becomes more than just a friend, or worse, an emotional crutch. Pope Leo XIV has warned about overly \u201caffectionate\u201d chatbots, urging regulation to prevent humans from forming serious emotional bonds with their AI companions<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n

\n The US-born pontiff, writing in a message ahead of the Catholic Church\u2019s annual World Day of Social Communications, said artificial intelligence <\/a>risked diluting human creativity and decision-making.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cAs we scroll through our information feeds, it becomes increasingly difficult to understand whether we are interacting with other human beings, bots, or virtual influencers,\u201d Pope Leo wrote on Saturday.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cBecause chatbots that are made overly \u2018affectionate,\u2019 in addition to always present and available, can become hidden architects of our emotional states, and in this way invade and occupy people\u2019s intimate spheres,\u201d he added.\n <\/p>\n

\n Compared to his predecessors, Leo XIV is more engaged with the digital world. As a bishop and cardinal, he had an X account, and as pope he wears what appears to be an Apple watch or other smart watch.\n <\/p>\n

\n Soon after his election, Leo said he wanted to make AI a focus of his papacy and has called for an ethical framework for the developing technology.\n <\/p>\n

\n At the end of 2025, Leo also met Megan Garcia, a woman whose 14-year-old son, Sewell Setzer, took his own life after engaging with an AI Chatbot. In his latest message, the pope called for national governments and international bodies to take action in this area.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cAppropriate regulation can protect people from an emotional attachment to chatbots and contain the spread of false, manipulative or misleading content, preserving the integrity of information against its deceptive simulation,\u201d he wrote.\n <\/p>\n

\n Leo also called for clear distinctions between content generated by AI versus created by people, including journalists.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cAuthorship and sovereign ownership of the work of journalists and other content creators must be protected,\u201d the pontiff said. \u201cInformation is a public good.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n And he urged media and communication companies not to use algorithms \u201cfor a few more seconds of attention\u201d if it betrays their \u201cprofessional values.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Leo also raised concerns about the \u201chandful of companies\u201d behind the development of AI, pointing specifically to the founders who were recently presented as \u201cPerson of the Year 2025<\/a>\u201d by Time magazine. Leo said it \u201craises concerns\u201d that a small group of people has \u201ccontrol of algorithmic and AI systems that can subtly shape behavior and even rewrite human history \u2013 including the history of the Church \u2013 often without us fully realizing it.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The church\u2019s World Day of Social Communications takes place on May 17, 2026, and this year is focused on protecting human dignity at a time of technological innovation.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Beware of the AI chatbot that becomes more than just a friend, or worse, an emotional crutch. Pope…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":430868,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[62,276,277,49,48,61],"class_list":{"0":"post-430867","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-ca","12":"tag-canada","13":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/430868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}