As an atheist, you won't see me at Mass, but I'll gladly welcome the Pope as another AI-sceptic ally. Pope Leo XIV has just issued his first encyclical letter since being elected in 2025, calling for a 'safeguarding of the human person in the time of artificial intelligence'.
Titled 'Magnifica Humanitas' ('magnificent humanity' in Latin), the letter calls for the AI industry to slow down and break fewer things, repeatedly denouncing the "culture of power" driving deregulation efforts. "Technology is never neutral, because it takes on the characteristics of those who devise, finance, regulate and use it," the Pope writes.
