Pope condemns AI-directed warfare

Pope Leo XIV used one of his sharpest warnings yet on artificial intelligence this week to target its military use, tying the technology to what he called a “spiral of annihilation” and urging restraint in the development of autonomous weapons. The remarks came at Rome’s La Sapienza University on May 15, where Leo also called for peace in Ukraine and the Middle East, according to Associated Press coverage. The intervention adds a military dimension to a broader Vatican campaign that has cast AI as an issue of human dignity, labor, communication and war. It also comes just before the expected release of Leo’s first encyclical, a major papal document that Vatican officials say will address artificial intelligence. ### What exactly did Leo say about AI and war? Rome’s La Sapienza University was the setting for Leo’s warning that investment in artificial intelligence and high-tech weaponry was pushing the world toward a “spiral of annihilation,” according to AP and NPR reports published May 15. The pope coupled that line with a call for peace in current conflicts, including Ukraine and the Middle East. (apnews.com) The phrase matters because Leo was not speaking only about civilian uses of AI. AP reported that he denounced investment in AI and high-tech weaponry, placing autonomous and AI-directed warfare squarely inside the Vatican’s ethical critique of the technology. ### How does this fit with Leo’s broader AI message? (apnews.com) Vatican City officials said Leo signed his first encyclical on May 15, and the document is expected to be released in the coming weeks. AP reported that the text is expected to address artificial intelligence through an ethics-based approach centered on human dignity, social relationships and peace. (apnews.com) January 24 offered an earlier marker of that approach. In a message for the World Day of Communications, Leo warned against treating AI as an all-knowing “friend” or “oracle,” and said the central question was not what machines can do, but what humans will do with them. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ news service said he also warned that AI-driven communication systems can weaken critical thinking and deepen polarization. (usnews.com) AP reported that Leo has repeatedly linked today’s AI debate to the industrial upheaval addressed by Pope Leo XIII in *Rerum Novarum*, the 1891 encyclical that became a foundation of Catholic social teaching. Vatican officials said the new encyclical was signed 135 years to the day after that earlier document. (usccb.org) ### Why is the Vatican treating AI as more than a tech issue? The Vatican’s framing has widened from personal ethics to social order. AP reported that the coming encyclical is expected to place AI inside the church’s social teaching, which covers labor, justice and peace as well as technology itself. (usnews.com) Meghan Sullivan, a philosophy professor at the University of Notre Dame quoted by AP, said the Catholic Church is likely to act as “the adult in the room” in debates over how AI is integrated into society. That assessment was hers, not the Vatican’s, but it captures how outside observers see Leo trying to move the argument beyond product design and into governance, human responsibility and conflict. (usnews.com) ### What does UNESCO have to do with it? The Vatican announced on May 16 that Leo will travel to France from Sept. 25 to 28 and will visit UNESCO’s Paris headquarters, Reuters reported. UNESCO is the U.N. cultural and educational agency and has been one of the main multilateral bodies working on AI ethics. Reuters reported that the Vatican has not yet released a detailed program for the France trip. (usnews.com) But the UNESCO stop gives Leo a ready-made international forum as he presses a case that AI is not only a matter for companies and engineers, but also for governments and multilateral institutions. That is an inference from the timing of the trip and the subject of the encyclical, supported by the Vatican’s announcement and AP’s description of the document’s focus on peace and ethics. (aol.co.uk) ### What comes next? May 15 is the date Vatican officials gave for Leo’s signing of the encyclical, and AP said the text is expected to be released by the Vatican in the coming weeks. That publication will provide the clearest account yet of how Leo wants Catholic social teaching applied to artificial intelligence. (aol.co.uk) Sept. 25 to 28 is the window the Vatican gave for Leo’s France trip, and Reuters said the visit will include UNESCO in Paris. A fuller Vatican itinerary is still to come. (aol.co.uk) (usnews.com)