Pope Leo urges AI regulation, warning of its dangers in first encyclical

Pope Leo urged governments to slow down and closely regulate the development of artificial intelligence in his first major document, released on Monday, warning that AI systems spread misinformation, prioritize conflict, and risk leading the world toward a never-ending war.

Speaking at a Vatican event launching the text, the first US pope expressed concern that some autonomous weapons systems had advanced "practically beyond any human reach to govern them." The event was attended by Chris Olah, a co-founder of Anthropic, the company behind the Claude AI tools.

In the lengthy document, known as an encyclical and titled "Magnifica Humanitas" (Magnificent Humanity), Leo called for AI data ownership not to be left solely in private hands, for policymakers to protect workers' rights and keep children safe from the technology, and for a cooling of competition between AI firms. 

"What is needed is a more active political involvement that is capable of slowing things down when everything is accelerating," he wrote, calling for "robust legal frameworks, independent oversight, informed users, and a political system that does not abdicate its responsibility." The text, spanning nearly 43,000 words, has been in the works almost since Leo's election a little over a year ago.

"Humanity is slipping into a violent culture of power, where peace no longer appears as a responsibility to be taken on but as a fragile interval between conflicts," Leo wrote. He warned that some leaders might view armed conflict as a way to divert attention from domestic problems.

Leo also opposed the "just war" theory, a doctrine the Church has used since at least the fifth century to evaluate conflicts and one recently invoked by Trump administration officials, including Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic, to defend the Iran war. "The 'just war' theory, which has all too often been used to justify any kind of war, is now outdated," he wrote. 

At the Vatican event, Olah thanked Leo for addressing the technology's risks and said firms like his needed outside scrutiny. "Every frontier AI lab, including Anthropic, operates inside a set of incentives and constraints that can sometimes conflict with doing the right thing," he said.

Leo also criticized what he called "new forms of slavery" endured by those who maintain AI systems and the workers who produce the devices on which it runs, citing children who work in dangerous conditions extracting rare earth elements. 

Separately, the pope acknowledged that the Catholic Church had not forcefully condemned transatlantic slavery until the 19th century, issuing a personal apology. "This constitutes a wound in Christian memory," he wrote. "For this, in the name of the Church, I sincerely ask for pardon."

Invoking the biblical story of the Tower of Babel, Leo urged the world "to abandon the construction of yet another Tower of Babel and to join forces in building up the common good," and not to give up on confronting the risks of AI. "No one is without responsibility," he wrote. "We all have our own areas for action."