Pope Leo XIV calls for AI to be 'disarmed' in first encyclical, drawing praise from US Vice President JD Vance

Pope Leo XIV has placed artificial intelligence at the center of his papacy with the release of his first encyclical, 'Magnifica Humanitas' (Magnificent Humanity), published on May 25. The landmark document calls for the 'disarming' of AI through new regulations, arguing that oversight cannot be left to a handful of private tech companies. In a break from tradition, the Chicago-born pope presented the 83-page encyclical personally at the Vatican alongside AI experts, including Anthropic cofounder Chris Olah.

A moral call to disarm technology

The encyclical frames AI not merely as a technical tool but as an invisible infrastructure shaping daily life, work, and collective choices. Pope Leo XIV invokes the 1891 encyclical 'Rerum Novarum' on labor and industrial capitalism, updating its social doctrine for the digital age. The central concept is 'disarming technology' — preventing AI from becoming a form of power that dominates human existence. The pope warns that 'small, very influential groups can steer information and consumption, determine democratic processes, and influence economic dynamics.'

Never has humanity had so much power over itself.

Warfare and autonomous weapons

A significant portion of the encyclical addresses the militarization of AI. The pope criticizes 'a race for the most powerful algorithm and the largest database' to gain a 'geopolitical or commercial advantage.' He states that AI-powered autonomous weapons systems have made wars 'more feasible.' The document insists that technology cannot be considered morally neutral, even if it is neither 'a misanthropic force' nor 'an evil.'

Praise from Washington

US Vice President JD Vance welcomed the encyclical in an interview with NBC News, calling it 'very profound' and 'exactly the kind of statement one expects and hopes for from a church leader.' Vance, who converted to Catholicism in 2019 and previously worked as a venture capitalist with close ties to the tech industry, said the American-born pope was demonstrating 'moral leadership' on a forward-looking issue. The praise stands in contrast to President Donald Trump's recent sharp criticism of the pope over his peace appeals during the Iran war.

What I have read of it sounds very profound.

Reception and debate

The encyclical has sparked immediate debate. German Digital Minister Wildberger called for 'ethical AI' in response, while theologian and philosopher Claudia Paganini offered a mixed assessment. She praised the pope's 'great sense of social justice,' particularly his attention to click-workers in poorer countries who feed AI systems as cheap labor. However, she noted that grounding the arguments in Christian social ethics limits the document's connectivity to debates outside the Catholic Church, and that questions of concrete responsibility and implementation remain open.

Everyone is somehow shirking responsibility. AI is a topic where we finally need to concretely determine: who is responsible for what and who should do what?

A new papacy's signature issue

The encyclical, spanning over 100 pages, is seen as the governing statement of Leo XIV's pontificate. Just as his predecessor Pope Francis addressed climate change in 'Laudato Si' in 2015, Leo XIV has chosen artificial intelligence as the defining challenge of his era. The document calls for AI to serve humanity rather than the power of the few, and demands broader societal control over the technology.