Is Pope Leo Joining the Anti-AI Resistance? – Mother Jones

Pope Leo XIV, a prominent advocate for immigrants and critic of war, is launching an encyclical focusing on safeguarding human dignity in the age of artificial intelligence (AI).
In his recent address, the Pope highlighted the challenges posed by AI development to human dignity, justice, and labor, framing it as another industrial revolution.
The upcoming address in conjunction with the co-founder of AI company Anthropic and various religious leaders, seeks to initiate broad discussions on AI ethics involving global entities like governments, religious groups, and academia.
Anthropic, an AI company developing advanced chatbots like Claude, has historically resisted certain government demands for surveillance and weaponization while facing legal challenges over copyright infringement.
Concerns exist that the Vatican’s partnership with Anthropic may lend unwarranted credibility to the company amidst public unpopularity and legal controversies surrounding its technology.
The engagement between AI companies and the Vatican on ethical matters stretches back to 2016 and includes high-profile figures like former Google CEO Eric Schmidt.
Despite widespread public skepticism and the perception of AI causing more harm than good, massive investments in AI continue to escalate, mirroring debates highlighted by Pope Francis’s 2015 encyclical on climate change.

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