Pope Leo XIV, in his first major didactic document, published on Monday, states that humanity must “disarm” Artificial Intelligence before things get out of control.
The observations come from an 82-page text entitled Magnifica Humanitas, the first encyclical of his papacy, published on May 25. An encyclical is a pope’s official teaching letter to the Catholic Church, outlining his priorities for the Church’s 1,4 billion members. For Leo, the priority appears to be Artificial Intelligence.
He even admits that he chose the word “disarmament” because he wanted something powerful enough to attract attention.
"The word is strong, I know, but it was chosen deliberately," he said.
The real message is not to abandon technology altogether. Instead, he wants it to avoid what he described as an “armed” competitive mindset. To that end, a significant portion of the circular focuses on Artificial Intelligence in warfare, where he argues that some autonomous weapons systems are already beyond meaningful human control. Instead, he says that Artificial Intelligence should be human-friendly, accessible, and open to public debate.
One passage of the encyclical reads like a direct address to Silicon Valley. In it, the Pope warns that the real control of digital systems no longer lies with governments but with a few companies. He said that when power is concentrated in so few individuals, it tends to become opaque and evade public oversight. This, in turn, opens the door to new dependencies and inequalities.
The circular was announced in the Vatican’s Synod Hall, with Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah sitting next to the Pope. Olah echoed the Pope’s concerns, saying that developers themselves are often drawn to ambition, competition and financial pressure.
“We need informed critics who will tell the labs when they are failing,” said Chris Olah. “We need ethical voices who cannot bend incentives.”
Olah also pointed out something that many researchers are concerned about. He described some behaviors within modern AI models as “mysterious, even disturbing,” adding that even the people who build them don’t fully understand what’s going on inside them.
Although the press releases will range from very select to rare, I said I'd pass...because sometimes the editors hide.
