Top Priority for Pope Leo: Warn the World of the A.I. Threat

New York Times

15-05-2025

The parishioners at St. Matthias Schöneberg Church in Berlin worry about artificial intelligence.
Congregants fret that their children are finding false information on chatbots or social media. Teachers at the parish school regularly monitor for A.I.-enabled cheating. And in this parish of 12,000 Catholics from more than 100 countries, those who make a living as interpreters fear their jobs will soon be obsolete.
Now, they have an ally in the new pope.
Less than a week into the role, Leo XIV has publicly highlighted his concerns about the rapidly advancing technology. In his inaugural address to the College of Cardinals, he said the church would address the risks that artificial intelligence poses to 'human dignity, justice and labor.' And in his first speech to journalists, he cited the 'immense potential' of A.I. while warning that it requires responsibility 'to ensure that it can be used for the good of all.'
While it is far too early to say how Pope Leo will use his platform to address these concerns or whether he can have much effect, his focus on artificial intelligence shows he is a church leader who grasps the gravity of this modern issue.
Paolo Benanti, a Franciscan friar, professor and the Vatican's top adviser on the ethics of artificial intelligence, said he was surprised by Leo's 'bold' priorities. Father Benanti remembers that just 15 years ago, when he told his doctoral advisers that he wanted to study cyborgs and human enhancement at the Gregorian, the pontifical university where he now teaches, his advisers thought he was nuts.
'And now it's the first topic of a pope,' he said in an interview at his monastery this week.
As a cardinal and head of the Vatican office that selects and manages bishops around the world, Pope Leo was already thinking about artificial intelligence. Father Benanti said that last September, the future pope, who has a degree in mathematics, invited the friar to talk to the heads of other Vatican departments about how to deal with digital life generally, including A.I.
The subject preoccupied his predecessor, Pope Francis, as well. Under his leadership, the Roman Catholic Church called for more oversight of A.I., and in 2024, Francis said the technology must be harnessed for solving social problems, not 'the desire for profit and the thirst for power.'
That kind of exhortation dates back much further, and was a source of inspiration for Leo. He chose his name mainly because Pope Leo XIII, who occupied the papacy in the late 19th century, took on the industrial revolution, writing in 1891 that governments must 'save unfortunate working people from the cruelty of men of greed, who use human beings as mere instruments for money making,' even as he marveled about 'discoveries of science.'
Now Pope Leo's advocacy comes at a time of similar technological disruption — and promise. Companies are spending tens of billions of dollars and working at a breakneck development pace, while there is little global agreement about regulation. Leaders in countries like the United States see advancing A.I. as a geopolitical imperative and fear that any major restrictions could give rivals like China a chance to race ahead.
Many in the tech world believe, with religious-like conviction, that A.I. is a technological breakthrough comparable to the steam engine, electricity and the internet. Its biggest champions believe the tools will lead to new health discoveries, scientific leaps and economic growth. But A.I. also poses many risks, including the spread of fake videos and other disinformation, algorithms taking over financial and other key decisions, autonomous weapons that can evade human control and the mass replacement of workers.
The International Monetary Fund estimates that A.I. will affect about 40 percent of global jobs, complementing some and eliminating others. Those labor market effects could exacerbate wealth inequality, by dividing the haves who capitalize on A.I. from the have-nots whose jobs cease to exist.
The church has championed technological progress in the past. Medieval Catholic monks invented new labor-saving technology like tidal-powered water wheels, and the church supported inventions by Catholics, including the barometer and an early calculator, said Brian Patrick Green, director of technology ethics at Santa Clara University. 'But as the power of technology has really become very very large, then the potential downsides have really come into view,' Mr. Green said.
Like any other institution, the church and its 1.4 billion followers can benefit from artificial intelligence — by using it to streamline menial tasks, conduct deep research and tackle massive data computation. An emerging niche market for apps and other services allows users to talk with priest-like A.I. chatbots.
On Bible Chat, a chatbot trained on the teachings of the Bible, some of the most common conversation topics include, 'Is getting tattoos a sin?' or 'How do I overcome lust?' The program, which costs $59.99 for an annual premium subscription, has recently been among Apple's most-downloaded apps. Services like Magisterium AI help clergy choose readings for Mass or answer basic theological questions like 'is euthanasia ever morally permissible?'
Catholics say the church will need to learn how to navigate the tools of A.I. like anybody else. 'If you said, 'Please write a homily for this Sunday,' and they print it and then read it, of course that sucks,' said Jose Manuel De Urquidi, who founded a digital marketing company in Dallas that helps Catholic organizations connect with U.S. Latinos and who sat at a table with Pope Leo last year during a meeting of bishops and lay people in Rome.
Catholic ethicists believe the pope can be a voice for restraint. 'What we can do is convene people of good will,' said the Rev. Brendan McGuire, the pastor of St. Simon Parish in Los Altos, California and a frequent consultant to technology leaders in Silicon Valley. 'This is not a Catholic problem, this is a humanity problem.'
Father Josef Wieneke, the pastor at St. Matthias in Berlin, said he was 'happy to hear' the pope talk about artificial intelligence so quickly, because leaders outside the church are interested in the Catholic ethical perspective. Father Wieneke said publishers have asked him for referrals on someone who could write about the religious view of A.I.
Leo's 19th-century namesake pressured governments to mitigate the damage of new technology as it was harnessed to capitalism. Wage earners, he wrote, 'should be specially cared for and protected by the government.' Whether Leo XIV will have any better luck at persuading governments or multinational corporations to rein in excesses and protect workers is an open question.
The pope may 'struggle to convert convictions into things that are really going to influence the big businesses and corporations' or legislation, said Stephen N. Williams, emeritus professor of systematic theology at Union Theological College in Belfast.
Matthew Harvey Sanders, who founded Magisterium AI, said he wanted the pope to offer the church as a refuge to those who lose jobs, fall into a virtual reality vortex or end up in despair when a ChatGPT lover fails them. He said the pope shouldn't be trying 'to ensure that governments are behaving and are doing the right things,' adding, 'That's not, effectively, I think, the role of the pope.'
Perhaps a hint of Leo's approach may be found in an interview he gave in 2012 to Catholic News Service about the harm caused by popular culture and social media. 'I don't think that turning away from the media would be the answer,' he said. The answer was to think about how to 'teach people to become critical thinkers' and to 'understand that not everything you hear or everything you read should be taken at face value.'