Pope Leo XIV presents Magnifica humanitas, his encyclical on AI, calling for AI regulation, protection for children against hypersexualized AI images, and more

The document marks a powerful foray by the leader of the Roman Catholic church into the debate about the misuse or overuse of artificial intelligence.

New York Times 2026-05-25

Discussion

@catholicsat @catholicsat on x
Pope Leo XIV addresses the development of doctrine in his Encyclical on AI, and apologises for the Church's role in the slave trade: “In the development of her doctrine, the Church has gradually come to a deeper awareness of the gravity of these issues. It is true that past [imag…
@guzik_paulina Paulina Guzik on x
Christopher Olah, a Canadian billionaire businessman and researcher who co-founded AI giant Anthropic, sitting in the Synodal Hall and speaking next to Pope Leo said, closing his speech: “I'd like to close with a request. We need more of the world - religious communities, civil […
@guzik_paulina Paulina Guzik on x
“Magnifica Humanitas,” Pope Leo's first encyclical on safeguarding a human person in the time of artificial intelligence is more than an encyclical on AI. It's a “chapeau bas” to humanity. A tribute to human intelligence, the way humans think and communicate, and a call to [video…
@benjamindekr Benjamin De Kraker on x
They should release PopeGPT where we can chat with an AI Leo about this.
@flingjore.com @flingjore.com on bluesky
Meta, Google and Amazon lobby the Vatican ahead of Pope Leo XIV's first encyclical on artificial intelligence. Industry leaders seek to position itself as an ethical partner while the Catholic Church prepares a document expected to shape global AI policy.
@disclosetv @disclosetv on x
NOW - Professor Anna Rowlands, says that encyclicals “traditionally expose false idols,” and that in Pope Leo's XIV first major encyclica he cautions that “we will not be saved by AI either, or its post and transhumanisms.” [video]
@ctrlamb Christopher Lamb on x
Pope Leo XIV's encyclical on AI goes beyond questions of changing technology —> He writes that Just War theory is now “outdated”, that the “litmus test” for social justice is the treatment of migrants & apologizes for the church's slowness in condemning slavery.
@catholicsat @catholicsat on x
Some initial thoughts on Pope Leo XIV's Encyclical Letter Magnifica humanitas: Similar in feel and style to the verbose documents of the Pontificate of Francis, filled with Tucho's voice especially on the emphasis on discernment. The TL;DR is AI is not inherently evil but is
@avandeursen@mastodon.acm.org Arie van Deursen on mastodon
Wait what? — > Popes do not usually attend the presentation of their encyclicals, but Leo is set to present his in person at the Vatican alongside Christopher Olah, a founder of Anthropic, a major A.I. developer, and several Catholic prelates and theologians. — https://www.ny…
@markdistef Mark Di Stefano on x
Now we're cooking [image]
@metacurity.com Cynthia Brumfield on bluesky
“I don't think the ‘tech bros’ in Silicon Valley will listen that much,” said Prof. Noreen Herzfeld, director of a program on technology and ethics at St. John's School of Theology and Seminary in Collegeville, Minn. — www.nytimes.com/2026/05/25/w...
r/neoliberal r on reddit
Pope Leo Warns of Risks From A.I. in 42,300-Word Encyclical
@joshmcelwee.org Joshua McElwee on bluesky
Pope Leo urged governments to slow down the development of AI systems in his first major document, released on Monday, warning that they spread misinformation, prioritise conflict and risk leading the world down a path of unending war. For @reuters.com
@hypervisible.blacksky.app @hypervisible.blacksky.app on bluesky
“Silicon Valley has spent years trying to convince governments and the public that AI can be developed responsibly. Now, the industry has been making that case inside the Vatican.”
@catholicourtney Courtney Mares on x
Anthropic's Chris Olah at the Vatican press conference to present Pope Leo XIV's encyclical on AI: “There is a real possibility that AI will displace human labor at very large scale. If that happens, supporting those displaced will be a moral imperative of historic proportions.” …
@fritzbischoff @fritzbischoff on bluesky
Pope Leo urges world to ‘slow down’ on AI in fervent first manifesto — Interesting read, seems at least Leo arrived in 21st century. — www.reuters.com/business/med...
r/europe r on reddit
Pope Leo urges world to ‘slow down’ on AI in fervent first manifesto
@packym Packy McCormick on x
Anthropic has secured the Mandate of Heaven.
@jj_poff Jeremiah Poff on x
While none of us know the particulars, the Church forging a public facing relationship with a private company raises significant concerns that cannot easily be dismissed. At minimum, it gives the impression (true or false) that Anthropic is influencing papal teaching on AI.
@pontifex Pope Leo Xiv on x
Humanity, created by God in all its grandeur, is today facing a pivotal choice: either to construct a new Tower of Babel or to build the city in which God and humanity dwell together. In Jesus Christ, this humanity in its grandeur becomes the Way, the Truth and the Life, opening
@deanwball Dean W. Ball on x
Reading the encyclical, I am reminded that the Vatican is fundamentally a city-state on the continent of Europe, and that its elites, which of course include the Pope himself, cannot resist the myopic preoccupations of the Eurocrat. This document would be much improved if it
@deanwball Dean W. Ball on x
The encyclical is Western academia/NGO “AI doesn't *really* think but it *is* racist” at its core, with little bits of tegmark/FLI talking points sprinkled incoherently on top.
@leahmcelrath Leah McElrath on x
Pope Leo quoting Tolkien in his encyclical on AI seems like a pointed reference for the tech oligarchs who have appropriated LOTR for their own ends.
@sethbannon Seth Bannon on x
The Pope's AI encyclical is a call on builders to deeply consider the impact of what they're building on civilization. “Technology is never neutral, because it takes on the characteristics of those who devise, finance, regulate and use it.” Therefore builders “bear a particular […
@ch402 Chris Olah on x
Remarks on Magnifica Humanitas
@alexandermccoy4 Alexander McCoy on x
I appreciated how @Pontifex inculcates against the “pro Tech vs Luddite” false binary, and makes clear the choice we face with A.I. is about governance and whose interests the technology serves. The whole thing is quite readable, & worth reading for yourself!
@jbsdc Justin Slaughter on x
Reading the new AI encyclical, I'm struck by how the Pope describes how we should achieve a common good for society. It's basically the most neoliberal vision of a common good conceivably possible: a culture of shared responsibility and aligned civil society. [image]
@aphysicist Aaron Slodov on x
anthropic has been saying this for 5 years and still nothing. big snooze fest. the sad thing is how many normies will see this now. maybe they don't realize how much damage they're doing.
@haydnbelfield Haydn Belfield on x
A genuinely historic document. This will anchor a key wing of the global debate over advanced AI and how we choose to govern and use these vast new capabilities. We will be talking a lot about this over the next decade
@linchzhang Linch on x
Significant fractions of Magnifica Humanitas, the Pope's new encyclical on AI, appears AI-generated or AI-assisted. Maybe Claude specifically, judging from the repeated references to 'genuinely." Kinda interesting!
@paulthedogman Paul Barrett on bluesky
You know there's trouble ahead when the Pope and his advisors are sounding more sensible on AI risks than the political and corporate leadership of the reckless country (us) leading on AI development. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/25/w...
@yuchenj_uw Yuchen Jin on x
Anthropic claimed the mandate of heaven. Even the Pope wants to become a Member of Technical Staff.
@apples_jimmy @apples_jimmy on x
What was the idea here ? Talk about mass unemployment and hope the pope was going to view you as “ the good guys ” ?
@rohanpaul_ai Rohan Paul on x
Pope XIV to Anthropic co-founder Christopher Olah: The church and Anthropic will work together to guide humanity in the age of AI. “What a great sign of hope it is that, with our differences, we can listen to one another. This interchange clearly bespeaks the gravity of the [vide…
@basedjensen @basedjensen on x
Claude is gonna get a benediction by Q4 2028
@gavinpurcell Gavin Purcell on x
one company now literally had the mandate of god
@kimmonismus @kimmonismus on x
[video] Hold on, so Anthropic now has the cathloic church and god on their side as well? I thought Andrej Karpathy was already the highlight.
@tekbog @tekbog on x
alright it's over for openai im sorry st claude is here
Yoshua Bengio Yoshua Bengio on linkedin
“Like nuclear energy, AI must be at the service of all and of the common good. Decisions about technology must never be separated from conscience and responsibility.” …
@nixCraft@mastodon.social @nixCraft@mastodon.social on mastodon
“Idolatry of profit” — That might be one of the strong phrases I've heard anyone use about the AI companies. Pope Leo has called for *robust regulation* of AI and limits on its use for warfare, as he warned of the dangers of a technological revolution driven by “the idolatry o…
@creebeauvoir Cree on x
the Pope quoting The Lord of the Rings in his first encyclical is going to do more for AI safety discourse than all the years of frontier lab governance posts [image]
@mattyglesias Matthew Yglesias on x
It is not surprising to see that the Pope endorses a lot of superstitious mind/body dualism about artificial intelligence but it's still wrong, even as he is also raising a lot of good points about some of the risks at play.
@rnaudbertrand Arnaud Bertrand on x
This is utterly ridiculous clickbait. What actually happened: the Pope released a 235-page encyclical saying AI needs to be “disarmed” and should NOT be used to “secure geopolitical or commercial dominance” ( https://www.vatican.va/...). Anthropic's CEO Dario Amodei explicitly
@christopherhale Christopher Hale on x
In leaked audio recordings, Peter Thiel revealed he told JD Vance to ignore Pope Leo XIV on moral issues, including the development of ethical AI. Calling Leo XIV the “woke American pope,” he also suggested the American pope was a tool of the Antichrist. Now, Pope Leo XIV is
@ketanjoshi.co Ketan Joshi on bluesky
The pope's AI encyclical only has one mention of climate impacts from energy and it proposes “more sustainable technological solutions” rather than cutting back on the size of data centres and the industry's business model.......the ref 134 has a bit more detail — www.vatican.v…
@cjsprigman Chris Sprigman on bluesky
Pope Leo's encyclical is, to me, the most impressive attempt so far to outline a policy program that reconciles the development of AI with human welfare. 1/ www.nytimes.com/2026/05/25/w...
@davidsacks David Sacks on x
The Pope rightly warns that AI must serve human dignity, not become a tool of domination or exclusion. But if we hand governments sweeping power over AI development in the name of safety, how do we prevent it from being used to censor, surveil, and control citizens — as Orwell
@mikeisaac Rat King on x
the monkey's paw in Peter Thiel's possession just curled one of its fingers
@krishnanrohit Rohit on x
Agree with Dean. I skimmed the encyclical, it was quite low perplexity. Hit the usual points: - We don't know how the technology works - Hopes and prayers - We should go slow so someone can do something - Dignity in work, AI doesn't have a soul - AI is biased - AI uses a lot of
@ledermanharvey Harvey Lederman on x
I disagree with important aspects of this and may discuss those later, but for today: this is a beautiful, humane document that speaks to challenges many of us are grappling with every day, without words or concepts for what we are feeling, or ideas about how to act. It's
@roybahat Roy E. Bahat on x
Wrote up a few thoughts on the Pope's encyclical on AI this morning. He frames less as about *the technology* as about who controls it. Cites the story of Nehemiah (which was new to this Jew, despite being in the Torah) about how the community organized to rebuild.
@clubconcrave @clubconcrave on x
Pope Leo quotes Gandalf in encyclical debut: “It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to [i…
r/LeftCatholicism r on reddit
Encyclical Letter of His Holiness Leo XIV Magnifica Humanitas (15 May 2026)
@sashadem Sasha de Marigny on x
“We dwell so often on what divides us, but humanity, full of dignity & conscience, has so much common ground. In conversations [we've] had with leaders across [faiths], we found one shared conviction: if this technology is coming, it must go well - for our common home & for the
@timnitgebru @timnitgebru on x
In case you thought religious leaders were gonna advocate for your rights & not the dudes about to make billions with their IPO. I guess it was only a matter of time when the religion of effective altruism, worshipping so-called artificial general intelligence, merged with
@christopherhale Christopher Hale on x
The Vatican spent a decade courting Silicon Valley companies to work hand in hand with the Church on developing ethical AI. Most ignored them. Marc Andreessen dismissed them. Peter Thiel bullied them. And more than anyone else, Christopher Olah and Anthropic said yes to them.
Vox Christian Paz on x
The pope takes on AI
@mikeisaac Rat King on x
pope already winning over catholic dads... [image]
@tomsteyer Tom Steyer on x
Pope Leo is right: The AI era demands moral clarity and urgent action from leaders everywhere. We can't allow AI to be a technology that turns billionaires into trillionaires while putting millions out of work. Read my plan here: https://tomsteyer.com/...
@ralph_grabowski Ralph Grabowski on x
The Pillar hosts Catholic bloggers commenting on the pope's statement on ‘safeguarding the human person in the time of artificial intelligence’ at https://www.pillarcatholic.com/ .... The ‘Magnifica Humanitas’ [latin for magnificent humanity] statement itself is at https://www.va…
@zslayback Zak Slayback on x
Time will tell on this, but if I were a betting man, I'd bet that the Vatican “walk[ing] together” with Anthropic more means plunking Chris Olah at roundtables for “conversation” and “dialogue” than anything else. [image]
@zackkorman Zack Korman on x
Gotta hand it to Anthropic's marketing, getting the Pope to enshrine that AI is dual use in an encyclical is a hell of an achievement. [image]
@deanwball Dean W. Ball on x
Humanity is building machines that will be smarter than we are at things we care about, things in which take individual and collective pride, domains of thought we originally invented and discovered. This will enable incredible things, but no honest person can deny that this will
@pontifex Pope Leo Xiv on x
We must, then, avoid the “Babel syndrome,” namely the idolatry of profit that sacrifices the weak, a uniformity that neutralizes differences, and the pretense that a single language — even a digital one — can translate everything, including the mystery of the person, into data
@pontifex Pope Leo Xiv on x
The Holy Spirit challenges us today regarding our relationship with technology and the ongoing digital revolution. Technology has the power to heal, connect, educate and protect our common home; but it can also divide, exclude and generate new forms of injustice.
@pontifex Pope Leo Xiv on x
Therefore, the primary choice is not between a “yes” or “no” to technology, but rather between constructing Babel or rebuilding Jerusalem; between a power that claims to dominate the heavens and a people who work together in the presence of God to rebuild the walls of fraternal
@pontifex Pope Leo Xiv on x
Yet, a bright possibility emerges: that of building together, of transforming diversity into a resource and of making listening and dialogue the common ground upon which to cultivate justice and fraternity.
@pontifex Pope Leo Xiv on x
In the abstract, technology in and of itself is not a solution to humanity's problems, just as, in and of itself, it is not inherently evil. In practice, however, technology is never neutral, because it takes on the characteristics of those who devise it, finance it, regulate it
@drsurekhadavies @drsurekhadavies on bluesky
(Even someone in as different a field as) the Pope gets it: “In practice, however, technology is never neutral, because it takes on the characteristics of those who devise, finance, regulate and use it.” — www.vatican.va/content/leo-...
r/TrueAnon r on reddit
The Popes manifesto on AI
r/Reformed r on reddit
Pope Leo: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence
@carnage4life Dare Obasanjo on bluesky
The Pope is the world leader who has shown the clearest & deepest thinking about the impact of AI. — He likens AI to the Industrial Revolution which replaced factory workers with machines and argues its impact is too significant to be governed only by AI labs, investors, and bi…
r/worldnews r on reddit
Pope, urging AI regulation, warns some weapons now beyond human control
@quinnypig Corey Quinn on x
I cannot believe I'm saying this, but getting the literal Pope to canonize your product's specific technical limitations as a spiritual treatise is the single greatest act of vendor lobbying I have ever seen.
@dieworkwear Derek Guy on bluesky
An excerpt from Pope Leo XIV's encyclical this morning. — The full text can be read here: — www.vatican.va/content/leo-... [images]
r/stupidpol r on reddit
New Papal Encyclical just dropped
r/slatestarcodex r on reddit
Magnifica Humanitas (Encyclical of Pope Leo XIV, 15 May 2026)
@daniellemorrill Danielle Morrill on x
What if every major religion was just a way to deal with scaling complexity
@karenhao Karen Hao on bluesky
The Pope has weighed in: AI isn't magic. It's currently produced by a deeply exploitative, extractive supply chain. It challenges human dignity; could fuel a new colonialism. And among the greatest challenges of our time will be to redirect its path of development. — www.vat…

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Pope Leo XIV presents Magnifica humanitas, his encyclical on AI, calling for AI regulation, protection for children against hypersexualized AI images, and more

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