Pope Leo XIV warns against AI warfare: ‘Artificial Intelligence now demands to be disarmed’

Pope Leo XIV on Monday (May 25) issued a sweeping warning about the dangers of artificial intelligence, calling for strong global regulation, independent oversight and ethical safeguards to ensure the technology serves humanity rather than profit or war.

In his first encyclical, titled Magnifica Humanitas (“Magnificent Humanity”), the first American-born pope described AI as one of the defining challenges of the modern age and criticized what he called the “culture of power” driving the global race to develop increasingly powerful systems.

“Artificial Intelligence now demands to be disarmed, freed from logics that turn it into an instrument of domination, exclusion and death,” Leo said during a special Vatican presentation of the document.

Leo declared it was “not permissible” to hand irreversible lethal decisions over to artificial intelligence systems, signaling a sharp moral challenge to governments and defense industries investing heavily in autonomous warfare technologies.

“It is not permissible to entrust irreversible, lethal decisions to AI systems,” the pope wrote.

Without naming specific countries or conflicts, Leo criticized the growing “normalization of war” fueled by advanced technology and warned that AI risks desensitizing societies to the human cost of conflict.

He also argued that the Catholic Church’s traditional “just war” doctrine was now “outdated” because modern warfare technologies have transformed the scale and nature of destruction.

“It is not enough to invoke ethics in the abstract; robust legal frameworks, independent oversight, informed users and a political system that does not abdicate its responsibility are required,” Leo wrote.

He added: “A more moral AI is not enough if that morality is determined by a few.”

The remarks appeared to challenge the deregulatory approach promoted by US President Donald Trump, whose administration has supported fewer restrictions on AI development in an effort to maintain American technological dominance.

Anthropic is currently involved in legal disputes with the Trump administration over access to AI-related technology and regulation.

Olah welcomed the pope’s intervention and said outside scrutiny of AI companies is necessary because of the enormous social and economic consequences tied to the technology.

“We need more of the world — religious communities, civil society, scholars, governments — to do what His Holiness has done here,” Olah said.

He warned of “a real possibility that AI will displace human labor at a very large scale.”

He urged them to prioritize humanity’s well-being over financial gain or geopolitical competition.

The pope’s intervention comes as AI firms including OpenAI and Anthropic continue to attract valuations worth hundreds of billions of dollars, underscoring the growing influence of private technology companies over the future of global economies and societies.

Leo framed the debate over AI as not only technological or political, but deeply moral and spiritual.

“Robust legal frameworks, independent oversight, informed users and a political system that does not abdicate its responsibility are required,” he wrote.