{"id":243357,"date":"2026-05-25T23:07:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T23:07:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/243357\/"},"modified":"2026-05-25T23:07:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T23:07:19","slug":"pope-leo-issues-dire-warning-on-anti-human-ai-and-new-tower-of-babel-in-first-encyclical","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/243357\/","title":{"rendered":"Pope Leo issues dire warning on ‘anti-human’ AI and new ‘Tower of Babel’ in first encyclical"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pope Leo XIV on Monday issued a dire warning about the threat of \u201canti-human\u201d AI in the first major theological document of his papacy \u2014 saying humanity is constructing a disastrous prideful Tower of Babel.<\/p>\n

The first American pontiff used his encyclical \u2014 an official open letter from the pope to the Catholic Church \u2014 to call for the use of artificial intelligence in warfare to be subject to \u201cthe most rigorous ethical restraints,\u201d warning that technology is fueling global conflicts.<\/p>\n

Pope Leo XIV\u00a0calls for robust regulation of artificial intelligence and for its developers to work for the common good rather than profit. REUTERS<\/p>\n

\u201cMagnifica Humanitas,\u201d or \u201cMagnificent Humanity,\u201d is Pope Leo\u2019s first encyclical. AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The 70-year-old Chicago-born head of the Catholic Church\u00a0compared the threat posed by AI to the biblical Tower of Babel.<\/p>\n

Pope Leo, who previously described AI as the\u00a0biggest challenge facing humanity<\/a>, noted that the Tower of Babel was a doomed attempt by people to \u201cmake a name\u201d for themselves by trying to build a single power and one language as they sought to erect a structure to Heaven.<\/p>\n

He said the\u00a0biblical\u00a0story\u00a0is\u00a0a warning against a plan that \u201cdominates and ultimately dehumanizes,\u201d adding that instead, AI\u2019s development should be shaped by diverse opinions and groups.<\/p>\n

His letter appeared to put the Vatican in direct conflict with Silicon Valley executives \u2014 and at further odds with the Trump administration.<\/a><\/p>\n

In the text, Leo denounces the \u201cculture of power\u201d driving the AI race, especially in developing ever more sophisticated methods of remote warfare. REUTERS<\/p>\n

\u201cThe primary choice is not between a \u2018yes\u2019 or \u2018no\u2019 to technology, but rather between constructing Babel or rebuilding Jerusalem,\u201d the pope wrote.<\/p>\n

Unfettered technological development risks reducing humans \u201cto mere cogs in a system driven toward ever greater efficiency.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pope Leo XIV attends the presentation of \u201cMagnifica Humanitas,\u201d which is focused on the rise of artificial intelligence, at the Vatican\u2019s Aula Nuova del Sinodo, on Monday. REUTERS<\/p>\n

Titled \u201cMagnifica Humanitas,\u201d or \u201cMagnificent Humanity,\u201d Pope Leo\u2019s encyclical, which is expected to define his papacy,\u00a0demanded protection for what he called the distinctive \u201cgrandeur of humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n

AI \u201cthreatens to normalize an anti-human vision,\u201d and so\u00a0it cannot remain in the\u00a0control \u201cof a\u00a0few\u201d\u00a0private actors, Leo said in his nearly 43,000-word\u00a0encyclical,\u00a0one of the highest forms of teaching from a pontiff to the Church\u2019s 1.4 billion members.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is needed is a more active political involvement\u00a0that is\u00a0capable of slowing things down when everything is accelerating,\u201d the pontiff said.<\/p>\n

The pope called for \u201crobust legal frameworks, independent oversight, informed users\u00a0and\u00a0a political system that does not abdicate its responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pope Leo XIV greets Anthropic co-founder Christopher Olah during Monday\u2019s presentation. AP Photo\/Alessandra Tarantino<\/p>\n

Common smartphone AI apps are Claude by Anthropic, ChatGPT by OpenAI, Gemini by Google, and Grok by xAI. NurPhoto via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Pope Leo presented Monday\u2019s 235-page booklet alongside\u00a0Chris Olah, a co-founder of the AI company Anthropic<\/a>, which has been in a legal dispute with President Trump\u2019s administration over the use of its technology in military and defense operations.<\/p>\n

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Echoing the pope\u2019s call for greater accountability\u00a0of\u00a0AI\u00a0bosses, Olah said decisions \u201cshould not be left to people in the industry\u201d but instead\u00a0requires\u00a0a collective resolution.<\/p>\n

Olah said three key principles involve a \u201cduty to the global poor,\u201d \u201cmoral imagination and ambition\u201d and the \u201cneed for discernment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Olah also warns Monday about the dangers of AI to humanity. AP Photo\/Alessandra Tarantino<\/p>\n

The encylical could be the most important of the American pope\u2019s reign. AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery frontier AI lab, including Anthropic, operates inside a set of incentives and constraints that can sometimes conflict with doing the right thing,\u201d Olah told the audience at the Vatican.<\/p>\n

The pope also issued a critique of \u201ctranshumanism,\u201d the idea that technology can help a person overcome physical and biological limitations such as aging, as well as \u201cposthumanism,\u201d which blurs the boundaries between humans and machines.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot consider AI to be morally neutral. Every technical tool embodies choice and priorities through what it measures, ignores, and optimizes, and how it classifies people and situations,\u201d Leo wrote.<\/p>\n

Trump has been critical of the pope over his stance on the Iran war and has also taken a hands-off approach to AI regulation.<\/p>\n

While his document focused primarily on AI, Leo also appeared to deliver a barb toward Vice President JD Vance, too, after the Catholic pol previously called on the pope to \u201cbe careful when he talks about matters of theology,\u201d following his criticism of joint US-Israeli strikes on Iran.<\/p>\n

The pope called the \u201cjust war\u201d theory of Christian doctrine\u00a0\u201cnow outdated,\u201d adding that military force can only be used for \u201cself-defense in the strictest sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Post wires<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pope Leo XIV on Monday issued a dire warning about the threat of \u201canti-human\u201d AI in the first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243358,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[39434,66,4840,4410,9,11,10,5638,7675,1601,1076],"class_list":["post-243357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-anthropic","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-catholic-church","tag-chatgpt","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-pope-leo-xiv","tag-religion","tag-tech","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243357\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}