Pope Leo XIV’s First Encyclical Calls to ‘Disarm’ AI and Put Humanity First

The Pope published an 83-page encyclical on AI’s impact on work, war, and democracy, with Anthropic co-founder Christopher Olah among the speakers at the Vatican presentation.
artificial-intelligence
Author

Kabui, Charles

Published

2026-05-26

Keywords

pope-leo-xiv, magnifica-humanitas, ai-ethics, encyclical, anthropic

Download as PDF

Pope Leo XIV published his first encyclical on May 25: “Magnifica humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence.” The 83-page, five-chapter document is the Catholic Church’s most authoritative statement on AI, directed to 1.4 billion Catholics worldwide. The Pope signed it on May 15, exactly 135 years after Leo XIII’s Rerum novarum, which confronted worker exploitation during the Industrial Revolution. The parallel is intentional. “Today we find ourselves facing a transformation of similar magnitude, with perhaps even greater consequences,” the Pope said at the Vatican’s Synod Hall. The encyclical calls for AI to be “disarmed”: freed from military, economic, and cognitive competition. It argues that technology is never neutral and urges an ethical code built on shared standards of social justice, not rules defined by a handful of companies.

Among the speakers was Christopher Olah, co-founder of Anthropic, who called for “informed critics who will tell the labs when we are failing” and “moral voices that the incentives cannot bend.” The Pope thanked Olah, a non-believer, saying “What a great sign of hope it is that with our differences we can listen to one another.” A tech company co-founder speaking at a papal encyclical launch is highly unusual, and it signals the Vatican engaging directly with the people building AI, not just critiquing from a distance.

A moral framework from an institution with 1.4 billion members, one that calls for AI to serve humanity rather than concentrate power, adds a voice operating outside the usual market and policy incentives. Most AI governance today runs through corporate policies or government regulation. This encyclical introduces a third force: moral authority backed by centuries of institutional credibility.

Read More: AI This Week: Erdős Conjecture, Karpathy, Gemini 3.5, OpenAI IPO

Sources:

Disclaimer: For information only. Accuracy or completeness not guaranteed. Illegal use prohibited. Not professional advice or solicitation. Read more: /terms-of-service

Reuse

GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE v3.0(View License)

Citation

BibTeX citation:
@misc{kabui2026,
  author = {{Kabui, Charles}},
  title = {Pope {Leo} {XIV’s} {First} {Encyclical} {Calls} to “{Disarm}”
    {AI} and {Put} {Humanity} {First}},
  date = {2026-05-26},
  url = {https://toknow.ai/posts/pope-leo-xiv-magnifica-humanitas-ai-encyclical-disarm/},
  langid = {en-GB}
}
For attribution, please cite this work as:
Kabui, Charles. 2026. “Pope Leo XIV’s First Encyclical Calls to ‘Disarm’ AI and Put Humanity First.” https://toknow.ai/posts/pope-leo-xiv-magnifica-humanitas-ai-encyclical-disarm/.