Pope Leo XIV’s opening words to his 42,300 word encyclical – Magnifica Humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence – stated that humanity is faced with a “pivotal choice” regarding the rise of AI today: “either to construct a new Tower of Babel or to build the city in which God and humanity dwell together”.
The pontiff’s major papal text explores the theme of the relationship between power, technology and the human person, which questions the ethical challenges surrounding the use of AI across society and warfare.
Despite the nature of the text, Pope Leo asserted that he is not in direct opposition to technological innovations such as AI, going so far as presenting the encyclical alongside Anthropic co-founder Christopher Olah, representing the cooperation between the Vatican and the AI industry.
“In recent years, it has become increasingly evident how rapidly and profoundly digitalisation, artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics are transforming our world.
“Technology should not be considered, in itself, as a force antagonistic to humanity. On the contrary, it has formed part of our history since the beginning as ‘a profoundly human reality, linked to the autonomy and freedom of man’,” Pope Leo wrote.
The intervention comes as AI investment and adoption continue accelerating globally, with major technology companies including OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Microsoft, Meta and NVIDIA leading the industry’s expansion.
Nvidia alone recently surpassed a market capitalisation of US$3 trillion as demand for AI chips and data centre infrastructure surged, while Microsoft and Google have committed tens of billions of dollars towards AI infrastructure and model development.
AI systems are increasingly being integrated across industries including healthcare, finance, education, manufacturing and customer service.
Recent productivity studies and company reporting have shown generative AI tools can reduce coding times, automate administrative tasks and improve operational efficiency, helping fuel a broader technology rally across global equity markets.
At the same time, Pope Leo warned the rapid commercialisation of AI risks concentrating power among a small group of corporations while undermining workers and social cohesion.
His encyclical raised concerns about automation displacing employees in clerical, creative and professional industries, particularly as companies move to integrate AI agents and generative systems into day-to-day operations.
“Humanity can never abdicate its moral responsibility by entrusting decisions of conscience and judgement to a machine,” he wrote.
The document devoted significant attention to warfare and autonomous weapons systems, with Pope Leo condemning efforts to delegate life-and-death decisions to algorithmic technologies.
He called for the “disarmament” of AI tools capable of being used in military conflict, arguing human accountability cannot be replaced by machine-driven decision-making.
Environmental concerns also featured prominently throughout the encyclical, particularly the growing energy demands associated with AI infrastructure.
Large language models require vast computing power and data centre capacity, increasing electricity consumption and raising concerns about carbon emissions, water usage and long-term sustainability as AI adoption expands globally.
Pope Leo further criticised what he described as a growing “culture of power” surrounding AI development, warning against technological systems that prioritise efficiency, surveillance and profit over human dignity and democratic accountability.
The Vatican’s intervention arrives amid intensifying global debate over how AI should be regulated, particularly as governments race to secure economic and strategic advantages from the technology.
Concerns surrounding misinformation, privacy, bias, deepfakes and military applications have prompted growing calls for stronger oversight from policymakers, academics and parts of the technology sector itself.
Olah echoed some of those concerns during the Vatican presentation, warning that AI development requires oversight extending beyond large technology companies and investors.
Pope Leo ultimately framed AI as a moral and spiritual challenge rather than simply a technological revolution, arguing innovation must strengthen human relationships and protect vulnerable communities rather than deepen inequality and conflict.
“The question before us is not simply what machines can do, but what humanity ought to become,” he wrote.
