On Memorial Day, Pope Leo XIV presented a 42,000-word manifesto (opens in new tab) warning of the threat AI poses to humanity. At the event marking the release of the document, he thanked Christopher Olah, a founder of leading AI company Anthropic, for attending. 

While the message may have seemed at odds with the special guest, it was the latest example of the convergence of AI and Christianity. 

Many tech leaders have been more open about their religious beliefs in recent years, including Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan, former Intel CEO Patrick Gelsinger, and Peter Thiel, who identified as “small ‘o’ orthodox Christian” in his Antichrist lectures and has been highly critical of the pope. 

The inclusion of an AI leader in the Vatican’s discussion indicates that the Catholic Church isn’t focused on taking down the technology but on influencing where it goes next. And it’s starting with clear guidance from the pope to AI founders, CEOs, and researchers to build accountability into their products and businesses.

“Together, we can discern the major questions of our time, and so, the future of humanity,” the pope said of Olah.

In the encyclical “Magnifica Humanitas,” the pope discussed the pros and cons of technology, acknowledging that it “has the power to heal, connect, educate, and protect our common home; but it can also divide, exclude, and generate new forms of injustice.” 

AI is not “inherently evil” he noted, but also “not neutral,” given that it is inevitably shaped by the morals of its creators. He specifically highlighted the dangers of autonomous weapons, saying they should be “subject to the most rigorous ethical constraints” and “no algorithm can make war morally acceptable.”

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The document urges caution in how individuals use these tools, but more so argues for changes in how they’re created. That means building AI with social justice, humanity, and the common good baked into the process, not as an afterthought.  

The pope urged AI “scientists, business owners, investors, academic authorities, politicians, and others” to be more transparent and responsible. He said it’s essential that AI-based decisions be understandable and contestable but also “subject to oversight.” If AI is going to be used to automate work, there need to be policies to protect human employment and offer retraining, said the pope.

The more powerful AI becomes, the more public responsibility lies with the tools’ creators, he stressed, especially with the role AI plays in decision-making processes. He also touched on the environmental impact, asking the industry to look for more sustainable solutions that protect the planet. 

In his speech, Olah echoed these concerns about his industry, touching on likely AI layoffs and parenting challenges. He seemed to embrace the idea of outside help. “We need more of the world — religious communities, civil society, scholars, governments, and indeed all people of goodwill — to do what His Holiness has done here: to take this seriously, to look closely, and to push events in a better direction.”  

The pope said his thoughts on AI emerged from chats with Olah, politicians, scientists, parents, and teachers, among others.

Most AI leaders are not getting their product guidance from the Catholic Church, but some are paying close attention.  

Marco Trombetti is both an observant Catholic and CEO of an AI service, Translated (opens in new tab). He splits his time between San Francisco and Rome and attended the encyclical release. His company has partnered with the Vatican to provide real-time translation of liturgies in 60 languages. 

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“They’re not saying AI is the enemy. … They’re saying, ‘Pay attention to the implication of your work,’” said Trombetti. “We should all act in a very conscious way to make sure that this does not damage humanity, and especially human dignity.” 

He was surprised that the pope thanked Olah personally. 

Olah, who told The Information in January that he identifies as an atheist, also presented at Synod Hall in Vatican City. His seven-minute talk (opens in new tab) seemed to welcome the Vatican pushing AI companies to do “the right thing.”  

He acknowledged Anthropic’s shortcomings and said he agreed with much of the Vatican’s guidance. All leading AI labs operate in a world where business incentives “can sometimes conflict with doing the right thing,” he admitted. (opens in new tab) “We need informed critics who will tell the labs when we are failing. We need moral voices that the incentives cannot bend.

“If this technology is coming, it must go well — for our common home, and for the children to come,” said Olah, 33, dressed in a navy suit and blue-striped tie.

He said support for workers displaced by AI is “a moral imperative of historic proportions.” More problematic, he said, is a question that remains unsolved. “How can we ensure the gains of AI are shared globally? We do not have a mechanism for this. … It is the kind of problem the Church has historically refused to let the world ignore.”

Michaël Trazzi, founder of Stop the AI Race (opens in new tab), said the pope’s encyclical aligns with the Bay Area AI-safety group’s beliefs. That includes warning against an AI race to secure “commercial dominance.” Trazzi said Elon Musk, Sam Altman, and Dario Amodei should “publicly [commit] to pausing frontier model development, if every other major AI lab in the world credibly does the same.”

Trombetti’s takeaway from the pope’s presentation was that the people building AI need to have caution and care for humankind. 

“Technology, for the Vatican, is no longer neutral. We understand that even with good intentions, this can become something dangerous,” he said. “The pope is trying to say, ‘Keep running during your gold rush, but as you do it, look around … for what’s happening to the people you’re running over.’”

Trombetti said he continues to hire rather than automating jobs, and not just delegating employees to fact-check a machine’s output. “As the pope said, it’s morally correct, but also, if we don’t do it, we’ll lose the best people,” he said. “It may not be the most profitable solution in the short term, but in the long term, yes.”

Indeed, AI still needs human oversight. Claude Opus, when presented with this article, erroneously commented, “Pope Leo XIV does not exist. The current pope is Francis; there has never been a Pope Leo XIV in Church history.”