Pope Leo XIV Warns AI Dehumanizes Humanity, Criticizes Profit-Driven Job Sacrifices

Pope Leo XIV published his first encyclical, Magnifica humanitas, “on safeguarding the human person in the time of artificial intelligence,” warning that humanity faces “the risk of being misled by deceitful goals” in the age of AI.

The New York Post frames a “cold war” between Silicon Valley and the Vatican, saying Pope Leo XIV warned regulators to stand up to AI’s creators while Peter Thiel argued in Rome “right outside Vatican City” that an antichrist figure will stymy technological progress.

Al Jazeera

In the encyclical, Pope Leo XIV warned that “the pursuit of greater profits cannot justify choices that systematically sacrifice jobs,” and CBS News reports he issued a warning over artificial intelligence.

OSV News quotes Pope Leo XIV saying, “The risk of dehumanization — of building a future that excludes God and reduces the other to a means — is an ancient and ever-new temptation that today takes on a technical guise.”

CNBC reports that traders on prediction market Kalshi place 60% odds that U.S. unemployment will cross 8% at some point before 2030, and 47% odds it will cross 9% in the same period.

The CNBC article also quotes the encyclical’s warning that “unemployment is a grave evil,” and it adds that Pope Leo urged the world to regulate AI.

America Magazine

Business Insider says AI leaders lobbied the Vatican ahead of the letter’s release, and it reports that Anthropic cofounder Chris Olah spoke at the Vatican City after the pope unveiled it.

Business Insider quotes Pope Leo saying, “I accept your invitation to work together, to listen and to speak, and together to find a way for humanity in this time of artificial intelligence,” linking the pope’s message to a direct engagement with an AI executive.

Business Insider says Pope Leo warned repeatedly about AI power becoming concentrated in “the hands of a few,” and it quotes the encyclical’s claim that concentrated power “tends to become opaque and evade public oversight.”

The Atlantic adds that Pope Leo wrote, “Therefore, it is not permissible to entrust lethal or otherwise irreversible decisions to artificial systems,” as the encyclical takes a hard line against autonomous-weapons systems.

In the labor section, Pope Leo’s encyclical calls for “verifiable measures to protect the employment, retraining and participation of workers,” and it warns that mass unemployment could become a “true social calamity.”

The New York Post counters with its own framing of Peter Thiel’s stance, quoting him from an October lecture: “In the 21st century, the antichrist is a Luddite who wants to stop all science,” as the paper describes Thiel’s broader clash with the Vatican over AI’s future.