Pope Leo XIV calls for “disarming” artificial intelligence and urges ban on lethal autonomous weapons – Unite.AI

Pope Leo

The audience brought together participants in “The future of artificial intelligence: a dialogue between the Vatican and the scientific world on the developments and applications of intelligent technologies”, a meeting jointly organized by the Pontifical Academy for Life and the Future of Life Institute.

Welcoming participants from many countries, the Pope said he believes they share a sense of unease about the development of artificial intelligence: the direction it should be taken is recognized, he said, but not enough is being done to move forward. He thanked the participants for their concerns and for their ideas and proposals for the future, describing them as the first results of a transdisciplinary approach which, in his opinion, is increasingly necessary if we want to face the complexity of the great challenges of the time.

The Pope recalled Pope Francis’ June 14, 2024 speech to the G7 session on artificial intelligence, in which Francis described artificial intelligence as a tool that inspires both excitement and fear and stated that the decision to take a human life should never be entrusted to a machine. These words remain more relevant than ever, said Leo XIV, adding that he tried to deal with the issue more thoroughly in his encyclical before setting out five considerations.

The five considerations

First, the Pope said, the future of artificial intelligence is not predetermined: as humans develop the technology, its future depends on the choices people make, and people therefore have the responsibility to direct and modify its applications and, when necessary, to reject them. The decisive question, he said, is what purpose AI should serve rather than simply what it can do. Those who view its development simply as a race to be won, he warned, risk fixating on the finish line and forgetting those left behind, and a reliable system serving the human person is more valuable than an exceptionally powerful system whose consequences cannot be adequately predicted or controlled.

Second, he said, “machines are tools, not people.” Artificial intelligence systems do not undergo experiences or possess a body; they don’t feel joy or pain, they don’t mature through relationships and they don’t know internally what love, work, friendship or responsibility mean. Some propose giving such systems rights or even legal personality, an approach that they say risks obscuring human responsibility and forcing people who suffer harm to seek compensation from a faceless human entity.

Human control, common good and institutions

Third, the Pope stated that some decisions should never be delegated. A person placed on a target list or entered into a border control database, he said, risks being reduced to little more than a given, and decisions affecting human life, liberty and the use of force must always remain subject to effective, informed and responsible human oversight. For this reason, he said, artificial intelligence must be disarmed and encouraged states meeting in Geneva in November to take concrete steps towards banning lethal autonomous weapons.

Fourth, he argued that intelligent technologies must be directed towards the common good and must never become an end in themselves or simply serve the interests of a privileged few. Citing his encyclical’s teaching that justice requires access to the benefits of innovation, including cures, knowledge, tools and opportunities, he said the development of these technologies should encourage solidarity and participation at various levels of the global community, ensuring that the benefits of progress are shared equitably, especially with those most in need.

The fifth consideration, which he defined as perhaps the most urgent, concerns institutions. Many of the ethical principles that should guide the development of artificial intelligence are already known, he said; what is needed now are institutions capable of putting them into practice, particularly effective international institutions capable of safeguarding the global common good. This requires shared standards, independent oversight and clear accountability mechanisms, he said, so that decisions regarding the development and use of artificial intelligence can be scrutinized, challenged when necessary and accompanied by appropriate remedies for the harm caused. The Pope concluded by thanking the participants for their contribution, urging them to persevere in a spirit of dialogue and co-responsibility for the common good, and imparting his blessing.

The encyclical behind the speech

The speech motivates each of his five considerations in numbered passages of Magnificent Humanitythe encyclical Leo XIV issued on 15 May 2026, whose full title is On the protection of the human person in the time of artificial intelligence. In that document the Pope notes that Leo XIII published his encyclical New things in 1891 and that the Church celebrates the 135th anniversary of the document in 2026.

The encyclical observes that, while once the State largely guided and directed innovation, today the main drivers of technological development are private entities, often transnational, with resources and a capacity for intervention that exceed those of many governments. This change, the document states, gives technological power an unprecedented and predominantly private character, which is more difficult to discern, govern and direct towards the common good. Its chapters include dedicated treatments of accountability, transparency, and governance of AI, weapons, and artificial intelligence.