{"id":211665,"date":"2026-05-25T12:25:52","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T12:25:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/pope-leo-warns-ai-is-fueling-conflict-urges-world-to-slow-advances-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2026-05-25T12:25:52","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T12:25:52","slug":"pope-leo-warns-ai-is-fueling-conflict-urges-world-to-slow-advances-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/pope-leo-warns-ai-is-fueling-conflict-urges-world-to-slow-advances-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Pope Leo warns AI is fueling conflict, urges world to \u2018slow\u2019 advances – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Morning Rundown: U.S. and Iran play down hopes of imminent deal, race to stop chemical tank explosion, and Pope Leo\u2019s AI warning<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

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Pope Leo XIV called for stronger regulation and a slower pace of AI advances <\/a>in a landmark theological document<\/a> released Monday, warning the technology was fueling and normalizing conflict around the world.
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In a sweeping and eagerly anticipated manifesto on the subject, Leo warned that AI should not be \u201cconcentrated in the hands of only a few people.\u201d He called for \u201cdisarming AI,\u201d which \u201cdoes not mean rejecting technology, but preventing it from dominating humanity.\u201d
Leo said that \u201cmerely regulating it is insufficient.\u201d
History\u2019s first U.S.-born pope was writing in his first encyclical, a key text outlining the pope\u2019s view on global affairs, titled \u201cMagnifica Humanitas\u201d (Magnificent Humanity).
It was released alongside Christopher Olah, one of the co-founders of the AI giant Anthropic.
That poses another potential flashpoint between the Vatican and President Donald Trump<\/a>, whose administration ordered all agencies to stop using Anthropic after the company refused the U.S. military<\/a> unrestricted access to its technology.
Its release comes after Leo faced public attacks from Trump following his criticism of the Iran war.
During the presentation at the Vatican on Monday, Olah acknowledged that all AI labs \u2014 including his own \u2014 \u201coperates inside a set of incentives and constraints that can sometimes conflict with doing the right thing.\u201d That\u2019s why it\u2019s \u201cenormously important that there be people outside those incentives\u201d who \u201care paying close attention, who are willing to say hard things, who are willing to be our earnest, thoughtful, critics.\u201d
In a rallying cry, he added, \u201cWe need more of the world \u2014 religious communities, civil society, scholars, governments \u2014 to do what His Holiness has done here: to take this seriously, to look closely, and to push events in a better direction.\u201d
Though the document was published Monday, Leo signed it May 15, specifically timed to coincide with the 135th anniversary of another key document crafted by his namesake predecessor, Pope Leo XIII, in 1891.
Whereas the previous Leo focused on workers\u2019 rights in the industrial revolution, the current-day Leo wrote that \u201cwe cannot limit ourselves simply to repeating his insightful teachings.\u201d Instead \u201cwe must ask God for the wisdom to interpret the great trends of our time, particularly technological advances,\u201d he said.
This math-grad pontiff sought to make clear he is no luddite, writing that \u201ctechnology should not be considered, in itself, as a force antagonistic to humanity.\u201d
Rather he warned against AI being wielded by a powerful few private interests, unchecked by governments and with the capacity to normalize war through unmanned weapons. \u201cA more moral AI is not enough if that morality is determined by a few,\u201d he wrote.
\u201cCalling for prudence, rigorous evaluation and even, at times, a slower pace in adopting AI does not mean opposing progress,\u201d the pope said in the document. \u201cInstead, it is an exercise of responsible care for the human family.\u201d
Leo \u201chas always had a passion for the sciences,\u201d said NBC News\u2019 Vatican analyst Deborah Lubov. \u201cHe also embraces technology; it\u2019s not that he\u2019s fearful of it,\u201d she added.
\u201cBut he realizes that artificial intelligence brings great risks\u201d and believes there needs to be \u201csome sort of moral compass or ethical framework,\u201d Lubov said.
In the document, Leo lamented \u201cthe growing ease with which autonomous weapons systems can be deployed,\u201d which he said \u201cmakes war more \u2018feasible\u2019 and less subject to human control.\u201d
The \u201cuse of AI in warfare must be subject to the most rigorous ethical constraints, to guarantee respect for human dignity and the sanctity of life and to avoid a race to develop such arms,\u201d he wrote. He also warned that \u201chumanity is slipping into a violent culture of power, where peace no longer appears as a responsibility to be taken on, but as a fragile interval between conflicts.\u201d
\u201cOur task today is not only ethical or technical. It is ecological in the deepest sense, for it concerns a new dimension of our common home,\u201d Leo wrote. \u201cAI is already an environment in which we are immersed, as well as a force with which we must engage. For this reason, merely regulating it is insufficient; it must be disarmed, welcoming and accessible.\u201d
Alexander Smith is a senior reporter for\u00a0NBC News Digital based in London.
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

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Morning Rundown: U.S. and Iran play down hopes of imminent deal, race to stop chemical tank explosion, and Pope Leo\u2019s AI warning news AlertsThere are no new alerts at this timePope Leo XIV called for stronger regulation and a slower pace of AI advances in a landmark theological document released Monday, warning the technology was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":211666,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-211665","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}