Pope Leo Warns AI Fuels ‘Culture of Power’ and Calls for Rigorous Ethics

Pope Leo, the first US‑born pontiff, released his first major teaching document, *Magnifica Humanitas*, on Monday at the Vatican. The encyclical addresses AI’s spread into work, family, education and politics, describing a troubling revival of war as an instrument of international policy. He said AI is helping to normalize conflict and must be governed by the most rigorous ethical constraints to protect human dignity and avoid an arms race.

In the text, Pope Leo wrote that the development and use of AI in warfare must be subject to the most rigorous ethical constraints to guarantee respect for life and prevent a race to build such arms. He also apologized for the Catholic Church’s delayed condemnation of slavery, calling it a wound in Christian memory and acknowledging the Church’s historical role in enabling enslavement. Christopher Olah, co‑founder of Anthropic, warned that AI could displace human labor on a very large scale and stressed that supporting those displaced would be a moral imperative of historic proportions.

The pope’s call for “disarming” AI signals a push to keep technology under human control rather than letting it dominate society. By linking AI ethics to the Church’s reckoning with slavery, he frames technological power as a moral issue that demands oversight from governments, religious leaders and civil society. The presence of Olah and other tech figures at the Vatican shows a growing dialogue between faith leaders and industry on responsible AI development.