What's going on: Pope Leo XIV has now made his stance on artificial intelligence as clear as baptismal water. On Monday, the head of the Catholic Church issued his first encyclical — one of the highest forms of papal documents — and it’s all about AI. In “Magnifica humanitas” (“magnificent humanity”), Pope Leo issued a stark warning about AI’s risks: It could erode human creativity and critical thinking, and blur the line between artificial and genuine human connection. But his most chilling concern? That AI could make it easier for humans to wage war. The text also compares AI hype to the Tower of Babel, the biblical story in which humans tried to build a tower to heaven, and outlines the technology’s negative impacts on labor, education, child safety, and misinformation (who could forget Balenciaga Pope?).
So is ChatGPT a sin now?: Not exactly. At the presentation of his encyclical, Pope Leo called on governments and tech execs to add guardrails to prevent increasing inequality — meaning students who use ChatGPT for homework help don’t need to head straight to confession. The Pope said that AI must “be at the service of all, and of the common good,” so it seems safe to say that he’s not against all uses of the technology. There is also the fact that Anthropic’s co-founder and safety researcher accompanied him. Still, the encyclical puts the Catholic Church in opposition to many tech companies and governments. One faith and technology researcher told The Wall Street Journal, “The pope is perhaps the single most important person in the world on AI at this moment.”
