ROME — As leaders of the Catholic Church popes have long set out to confront the great challenges of their age, be they heretics, plagues or invasions.
In 2025, Pope Leo XIV has made curtailing the risks of runaway AI a defining mission of his pontificate.
In his first official address to cardinals, he warned of the dangers of AI to “human dignity, justice and labor.” Two days later, speaking to reporters, he lauded the “immense potential” of technology while cautioning that it requires responsibility “to ensure that it can be used for the good of all.”
Just like his namesake, the 19th century Pope Leo XIII, who promoted workers’ rights during the industrial revolution, Leo XIV is positioning himself as a guardian of the social fabric in the face of unchecked modern technologies. The papal name chosen by then-Cardinal Robert Prevost was “not a casual reference,” a Vatican spokesperson said the night the conclave ended.
“The church asks us to look to the heavens but also to walk on earth according to the times,” Paolo Benanti, a Franciscan friar and the Vatican’s advisor on AI ethics, told POLITICO, adding there was nothing unusual in the church’s offering expertise in such a futuristic field.
“The Vatican wants to avoid some developments in AI that would be damaging to human rights and human dignity, which would likely disproportionately impact lower skilled workers,” said Maria Savona, professor of economics of innovation at Luiss University in Rome and Sussex University and an expert in AI.
Ethicists, philosophers and tech moguls themselves have warned of the risks of companies creating intelligent life forms. Billionaire X owner and developer of AI bot Grok Elon Musk has cautioned against “summoning the demon” through the reckless development of artificial intelligence, likening it to the creation of “a digital God.”
Work on carving out a place in AI regulation for the Holy See began with Leo’s predecessor. In 2020, then-Pope Francis assembled religious and political leaders along with tech companies such as IBM and Cisco to sign the Rome Call for AI Ethics, a commitment to the development of AI technologies that are accountable and socially beneficial. In January the Vatican published a formal statement warning that AI could result in humanity’s becoming “enslaved to its own work.”
As the first pope to hail from the U.S. — the land of Silicon Valley and home of the tech revolution — and a mathematics graduate, Leo is uniquely placed to carry the torch forward.
Washington is leading a deregulation charge, with President Donald Trump ripping up the safety rules laid down by his predecessor Joe Biden and unveiling a half-trillion-dollar AI hardware plan with leading company OpenAI.
Even the EU, historically at the forefront of AI regulation, is modifying its stance to focus on competitiveness — opening the door to “targeted tweaks” of its AI Act and doubling down on boosting computing power. At an AI summit in Paris in February, world leaders spoke more about clinching deals than erecting guardrails.
To Benanti, the church’s role as “an expert in humanity” can galvanize leaders, particularly of Catholic countries, “to create an AI that cares for man and is aligned with social justice.”
In Leo’s first call with Italian leader Giorgia Meloni, the two pledged to continue working toward “an ethical and human-centered development of artificial intelligence.” Last year, at Meloni’s invitation, Francis addressed G7 leaders on AI ethics.
“[The Vatican’s] interest in AI is not strange,” Savona said. “Francis also took a great interest in climate change, which is a contemporary issue. The [church’s] mission is to be faithful to core principles, while adapting to the world.”
The Vatican could use its network across the Global South to “spark more democratic access” to AI as power becomes concentrated in the hands of tech giants and wealthier countries, — and help push for regulation, which is Europe-dominated, to be globally standardized, Savona said. “This would be very, very useful.”
The pontiff knows the church “can help make sense of a changing world, steering it toward respect for human dignity, and show us how technical innovation can support social care,” she said.
Leo himself has not been able to escape the scourge of AI-generated content. Just a week into his papacy, a YouTube video purported to show Leo praising Burkina Faso’s President Ibrahim Traoré for contrasting the Vatican’s wealth with poverty in Africa. The Vatican flagged that the video was a deepfake — part of a wave of recent AI- generated content on African platforms glorifying Traoré as a paragon of pan-African leadership.
Scientific endeavor and the Vatican have not always been easy bedfellows. In the 1600s, theological authorities condemned astronomer Galileo Galilei for heresy for stating that the earth revolved around the sun.
But the conflict between faith and technology “is a very contemporary concept,” according to Benanti, who said many scientists throughout history have also been believers.
Whether Leo can be effective in his self-appointed quest will come down to his capacity to sway others, and potentially to his star power.
“The Vatican has very powerful moral suasion. It has a very authoritative voice,” Savona said.
Pieter Haeck contributed reporting.
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