{"id":340531,"date":"2026-05-25T19:27:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T13:57:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/?p=340531"},"modified":"2026-05-25T19:27:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T13:57:20","slug":"ai-is-fueling-war-culture-of-power-pope-says-in-theological-document-national","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/2026\/05\/25\/ai-is-fueling-war-culture-of-power-pope-says-in-theological-document-national\/","title":{"rendered":"AI is fueling war, \u2018culture of power\u2019, Pope says in theological document – National"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Pope\u00a0Leo\u00a0XIV\u00a0called Monday for robust regulation of artificial intelligence and for its developers to work for the common good relatively than profit, issuing a sweeping manifesto on safeguarding humankind because the technology impacts all the things from work to war.<\/p>\n

\u201cMagnifica Humanitas\u201d (Magnificent Humanity),\u00a0Leo\u2019s first encyclical, has been eagerly awaited ever since history\u2019s first U.S.-born\u00a0pope\u00a0announced days after his election that he considered AI to be the largest challenge facing humanity today.<\/p>\n

Within the text,\u00a0Leo\u00a0denounced the \u201cculture of power\u201d driving the AI race, especially in developing ever more sophisticated methods of distant warfare. He declared that it was \u201cnot permissible\u201d to entrust irreversible, lethal decisions to AI systems, organising one other flash point between the American\u00a0pope\u00a0and the Trump administration, which has\u00a0worked aggressively to deregulate AI development.<\/p>\n

\u201cArtificial Intelligence now demands to be disarmed, free of logics that turn it into an instrument of domination, exclusion and death,\u2033 the\u00a0pope\u00a0told a special Vatican presentation of the encyclical, one of the authoritative forms of teaching documents a\u00a0pope\u00a0can issue.<\/p>\n

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Experts within the tech industry, academia and Catholic morality said the document will likely develop into a benchmark in the controversy over AI, a degree of reference for policymakers, researchers and odd folk alike. It comes because the near-daily developments within the technology trigger concerns rise over AI replacing human jobs and even human intelligence.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt lends itself to people who find themselves on the forefront of those tools and capable of see the incredible things that they\u2019re capable of do, to have questions on their very own \u2018What does it mean to be human?\u2019\u201d said Taylor Black, a Microsoft AI executive and director of Catholic University of America\u2019s AI institute.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\tPope calls out AI firms whilst he hosts Anthropic\t\t\t<\/h2>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

The Vatican launch also included remarks by the co-founder of Anthropic, which is currently locked in a\u00a0legal battle with the Trump administration\u00a0over access to its AI technology. The Vatican decided to involve Anthropic as a part of its decade-long effort to interact Silicon Valley in dialogue over the human cost of AI.<\/p>\n

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And yet in his text,\u00a0Leo\u00a0repeatedly blasted the concentration of power and data within the hands of so few people within the private sector as a danger, especially to children and probably the most vulnerable, and called for external regulation of their work.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will not be enough to invoke ethics within the abstract; robust legal frameworks, independent oversight, informed users and a political system that doesn’t abdicate its responsibility are required,\u201d he wrote. \u201cA more moral AI will not be enough if that morality is set by just a few.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leo\u00a0appealed several times to AI developers and political leaders answerable for regulating them to only decelerate and reflect on what they’re doing. He urged them to make use of ethical and spiritual guidelines to make the selection to work not for their very own profit or power, however the betterment of humanity.<\/p>\n

AI competitors OpenAI and Anthropic are the second- and third-most helpful U.S. private firms, each valued at tons of of billions of dollars, greater than the GDP of many countries.<\/p>\n

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Anthropic co-founder Christopher Olah welcomed Leo\u2019s criticism and concern. He said such external checks on AI and the researchers behind it were fundamental to the technology \u201cgoing well\u201d for humankind since there’s a lot at stake \u2014 \u201can actual possibility that AI will displace human labor at a really large scale.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe’d like more of the world \u2014 religious communities, civil society, scholars, governments \u2014 to do what His Holiness has done here: to take this seriously, to look closely, and to push events in a greater direction,\u201d Olah said. \u201cWe’d like informed critics who will tell the labs after we are failing. We’d like moral voices that the incentives cannot bend.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\tExperts say the text will develop into a benchmark\t\t\t<\/h2>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

In a methodical text, the maths major\u00a0pope\u00a0traced the history of the Catholic Church\u2019s social teaching and applied its core concepts \u2014 justice, solidarity, the dignity of labor and the universal destination of resources \u2014 to the digital revolution.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI’m convinced that this may prove to be a defining document for our era, a profound and prophetic document,\u201d said Paolo Carozza, law professor at Notre Dame Law School and chair of the Meta oversight board.<\/p>\n

\u201cPope\u00a0Leo\u00a0is offering a transparent, comprehensive, and coherent voice urging us to take responsibility for constructing a world wherein technology will serve humans relatively than degrade them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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In its strongest chapters,\u00a0Leo\u00a0denounced how AI had helped speed up the \u201cnormalization of war\u201d by desensitizing people to its cost. He didn\u2019t name specific conflicts, but cited \u201copposing imperialisms, between powers that want to preserve their supremacy, and people who aspire to seize that supremacy.\u201d<\/p>\n

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He demanded transparency and accountability by AI developers in order that the chain of decision-making command in ordering strikes with AI weaponry is at all times known. He declared that the Catholic Church\u2019s \u201cjust war\u201d theory, which provides specific criteria for when force could be justified, was now \u201coutdated\u201d given the technological advances of warfare.<\/p>\n

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