Pope Leo XIV has urged world leaders to slow the pace of development of artificial intelligence systems, arguing that they have become instruments of war and misinformation.
In his encyclical, the first major text issued since the beginning of his papacy, the pontiff warned that AI systems are used to spread misinformation, prioritising conflicts which could lead the world into endless wars.
An encyclical is one of the pope’s most important formal teaching documents to the Catholic Church. It is used to teach on matters of faith, morals, and social issues, and typically reveals the priorities of a pontificate to the 1.4 billion members of the Church.
Pope Leo’s document, issued on Monday, is titled Magnifica Humanitas, meaning “Magnificent Humanity.” It centres AI as its major theme, while also addressing violence, wars among countries and the transatlantic slave trade.
In the document, the first US-born pontiff warned against AI as a tool for the normalisation of war. He described it as a “troubling revival of war as an instrument of international politics”
