Asked this evening about possible “catastrophic” or even existential threats to humanity posed by artificial intelligence, Pope Leo said that he is not “in panic mode” but that “we can’t just sit back and pretend that nothing is going to happen.”
The pope made the comments during an in-flight press conference on his return trip to Rome from France the evening of Sept. 28.
In July, multiple cases were reported of A.I. models escaping their isolated testing environments and hacking into outside organizations—one was an OpenAI model and three were Anthropic models. In September, industry insiders made headlines by warning that A.I. could “destroy all humans” within 10 years.
Aboard the papal plane, Justin McLellan, Vatican correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter, asked Pope Leo, “How worried are you that A.I. could pose catastrophic risks to humanity or even wipe it out entirely?”
The pope said he was concerned but that he remained optimistic about the possibility that groups of A.I. experts and social organizations could work together “to find ways to make sure that A.I. does not get to a point where it could destroy humanity or remove humanity from the conversation.”
The pope added that the Vatican’s artificial intelligence commission, which he said was originally created to coordinate the Holy See’s use of A.I. and evaluate its risks and benefits, had been contacted by people in many different fields. He expressed his hope that the Vatican could “continue to promote dialogue, study, investigation” to protect humans from any existential A.I. threat.
Pope Leo also mentioned that earlier in the day he had read comments by “the head of Nvidia” who “claims that he has found some way of inserting into A.I. certain guardrails” to prevent them from escaping their testing areas. The pope’s comments seemed to refer to Nvidia C.E.O. Jensen Huang’s announcement today of a new safety platform aimed at creating such guardrails.
The pope added, “He’s the same one, however, that says there should be no limits placed and no government regulation, et cetera, et cetera.” Mr. Huang argued this month that A.I. “safety is an engineering problem, not a legal one.”
At the United Nations General Assembly last week, U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese U.N. representative Fu Cong presented vastly different visions of A.I. development, with Trump saying the United States “totally rejects any attempt to construct a globalist scheme of control of superintelligence”—President Trump’s preferred term for A.I.
Mr. Cong, on the other hand, advocated “alignment and coordination of A.I. development strategies, governance and technical standards” and said U.N. member nations should “form a consensus-based global governance framework at an early date so as to build institutional guardrails that preserve international peace and security.”
Speaking at the Aspen Ideas Festival last week, tech billionaire Peter Thiel said that Pope Leo’s encyclical “Magnifica Humanitas” on protecting humanity from artificial intelligence “in effect…was working for the Communist party.”
“I’m not saying he was an agent of the communists, but he was at least acting as a useful idiot for the C.C.P.,” Mr. Thiel said.
Mr. McLellan also asked the pope what nations, especially the United States and China, should do “to ensure that their technologies are safe for humanity.” Pope Leo did not respond to this second question.
During the press conference, the pope was asked about a number of issues, including the systemic elements of abuse in the Catholic Church; the limits of French laicite; the case of Maria Del Carmen Abascal, an 87-year-old Spanish woman who was forcibly evicted from her apartment; his comments today on the need for “sacrifices” to be made in order to end war in Europe and far-right political and religious movements in Germany.
Sexual abuse and the housing crisis as ‘systemic’
The pope was asked about comments one of the sexual abuse survivors he met last night in Lourdes made, in which the survivor said that Pope Leo understood the abuse crisis as “systemic.”
“Personally I prefer to express it in a different way,” the pope responded, “although I did speak about some organizations within the church who have at times, if you will, as a system, been abusive.
“But I think it’s important to make the distinction: Sexual abuse is first and foremost a human problem. When it happens within the church, it actually has another whole dimension added to it, because people’s lives of faith are deeply wounded and sometimes even destroyed. So there’s a particular responsibility of the church to walk with them and to help them seek healing,” the pope said.
The pope did, however, describe another issue he was asked about as “systemic.” In response to a Spanish journalist’s question about the case of María del Carmen Abascal, the pope spoke about the growing housing crisis “that exists in many countries today.” The church, the pope said, would not be able to solve the problem via its social services alone; instead, he said, “I think this is a good example of where the church, as a community—or simply as human beings, as a community, even for people who do not have faith—we have to seek more just solutions so that cases like this do not happen.”
Separation of church and politics
Speaking on French secularism, which was a topic of much debate throughout the pope’s trip to France as he touched on political issues like abortion and France’s recent legalization of medical euthanasia, Leo said that “when the church speaks about defending life, when it speaks about questions of social doctrine, we’re not entering into politics, we’re applying the Gospel to people’s lives.”
Asked if he “crossed the line” between the separation of church and politics, Pope Leo said he did not cross the line as it is understood by the Catholic Church. He reflected on how in Lourdes he had hoped to help people suffering with sickness, disabilities or “pain of various kinds, that their life has meaning.”
“If that’s politics, I did that,” Pope Leo said, “but it was not to get involved in French politics. It was to teach what the church really believes.”
War, rearmament and defense in Europe
Speaking to European leaders at a conference on peace on the continent, Pope Leo today urged concessions in order to end war in Europe, referring to the war in Ukraine without naming it. He asked leaders “to show courage in negotiation and to be willing to give up some positions for the greater good of peace,” which was interpreted by many as asking Ukraine to cede territory to Russia.
In response to a press conference question about what sacrifices he thought ought to be made, Pope Leo spoke at length about his concern that leaders seem increasingly interested in stockpiling nuclear weapons. Speaking in Spanish, the pope said that continued promotion of military spending “means that a small number of people are becoming enormously wealthy through an industry that promotes war.
“Meanwhile, with these billions upon billions of euros or dollars, we could solve problems such as hunger in the world, housing, unemployment and so on.”
Without detailing what exact decisions he thought ought to be made, the pope said he saw the church as having “a responsibility” to invite “leaders from Russia, Ukraine and other countries to come, sit down, engage in dialogue and seek ways of resolving problems without continuing wars that no longer make any sense.”
The growth of the German far right
Finally, the pope addressed a German reporter’s question about the rise of far-right groups in the country. Without naming the far-right Alternative for Germany party, the pope alluded to the case of one party that is so extreme that other far-right groups are splitting off from it.
“It would be interesting to study, analyze, if and how there might be a relationship, for example, [between] the growth of these groups on the far right,” the pope mused, and “a certain kind of religion, which in not only my view [but] both the leaders of the Catholic Church and the Protestant Church in Germany have spoken out about, [is] not an authentic expression of Christianity.”
The pope said he hoped to eventually visit Germany, responding to the reporter’s invitation, but added, “with all humility, I’ll say it’s only been about, uh, 15 months that I’ve been pope. There’s many places I have not yet visited.”
Leo also expressed gratitude for the organizers of his France trip who “don’t get the applause that the pope gets.” Speaking to journalists before taking questions, the pope said his four days in France “were literally filled with many blessings, almost miracles I would say, especially the time while at Lourdes.”
He said he felt “blessed” to encourage young people in France “who are obviously searching for something,” referring to the rise in adolescents seeking baptism in the secular country. “It was so apparent at the stadium the evening with 80,000 young people gathered together from around France, their enthusiasm and their joy and their sense of hope.”
These experiences, he said, were “some of the highlights” of the visit.
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