Pope Leo XIV targets AI

Pope Leo XIV is moving artificial intelligence toward the center of his early papacy, with Axios reporting on May 14 that he is preparing his first encyclical on the subject and could sign it as soon as Friday. The report said the document would frame AI as a moral and labor challenge and place human dignity, workers’ rights and ethics at the center of the debate. Vatican officials have not publicly released the text or confirmed a title. Matteo Bruni, the Holy See press office director, had already linked Leo’s pontificate to the Church’s social teaching on May 8, when he said the pope’s choice of name was a deliberate reference to Leo XIII and the 1891 encyclical *Rerum Novarum*. Bruni told reporters that the reference concerned “the lives of men and women, to their work - even in an age marked by artificial intelligence.” (axios.com) ### Why is AI showing up so early in Leo’s papacy? May 8 provided an early clue. Bruni’s remarks that day cast Leo’s name choice as an explicit nod to Catholic social doctrine and to work in a period shaped by AI, placing the technology alongside labor and human life rather than treating it as a narrow technical issue. (vaticannews.va) Axios reported on May 14 that Leo’s first encyclical would extend that line of thinking into a formal papal document. The outlet said the text is expected to argue that AI should remain subordinate to human dignity and moral agency, though the Vatican has not yet published the document. ### What has Leo himself said about artificial intelligence? June 17, 2025, offers the clearest published statement from Leo on AI so far. (vaticannews.va) In a Vatican message to a Rome conference on artificial intelligence, ethics and corporate governance, he called AI “above all else a tool” and said its benefits and risks should be judged by whether they serve the “integral development of the human person and society.” (axios.com) That same message said AI’s rapid development raises questions about how to build a “more authentically just and human global society.” Leo said the Church wanted to contribute to a “serene and informed discussion” and stressed safeguarding “the inviolable dignity of each human person.” ### How do his latest speeches fit that agenda? (vatican.va) May 14 added a broader frame. In an address at Sapienza University of Rome, Leo urged students to be “artisans of true peace” and warned about rising military spending and the dangers of artificial intelligence in war, according to Vatican News. The same day, a Vatican News report on Leo’s message to the Turin International Book Fair said he called for literature that recognizes “the dignity of every person” and becomes “a school of fraternity and peace.” He also said reading helps form critical judgment and guards against “ideological shortcuts.” (vatican.va) (vaticannews.va) ### What would an AI encyclical mean inside the Church? An encyclical is one of the pope’s highest-ranking teaching documents, and a first encyclical typically signals the priorities of a pontificate. Bruni’s invocation of *Rerum Novarum* matters because that 1891 text is a foundational document of modern Catholic social teaching on labor, capital and industrial society. (vaticannews.va) Axios reported that Leo’s new text would place AI in that tradition by focusing on labor, ethics and human dignity. Because the Vatican has not released the document, the scope and wording remain unconfirmed beyond those reports and Leo’s prior public statements. ### What comes next? Friday, May 15, is the next date to watch. Axios said Leo could sign the encyclical as soon as that day, and the decisive next step will be publication by the Vatican, which would provide the final title, text and any concrete guidance on workers, creativity and moral decision-making. (vaticannews.va) (axios.com)