Pope Leo calls for robust regulation of AI in manifesto

Pope Leo urged governments to slow down the development of AI systems in his first major document, released on Monday, warning that they spread misinformation, prioritise conflict and ​risk leading the world down a path of unending war. Leo, who has adopted a more forceful tone in recent months and has drawn the ire of U.S. President Donald Trump after criticising the Iran ‌war, made a range of impassioned appeals to world leaders in the lengthy text, known as an encyclical.
The first U.S. pope called for ownership of AI data not to be left solely in private hands, for policy-makers to protect the rights of workers and keep children safe from the technology, and urged the cooling of competition between AI companies. “What is needed is a more active political involvement that is capable of slowing things down when everything is accelerating,” said Leo in the text, entitled “Magnifica Humanitas” (Magnificent Humanity). The pope ​called for “robust legal frameworks, independent oversight, informed users and a political system that does not abdicate its responsibility.”

JUST IN: POPE LEO XIV CALLS TO DISARM AI:

“Artificial intelligence needs to be disarmed.

The word is strong, I know, but deliberately chosen.

AI now demands to be disarmed, freed from logics that turn it into an instrument of domination, exclusion, and death.

Like nuclear… pic.twitter.com/Vco5z2RgCb

— Sulaiman Ahmed (@ShaykhSulaiman) May 25, 2026

Encyclicals are one of the highest forms of teaching from a pontiff to the Church’s 1.4 billion ​members. Monday’s highly anticipated text, spanning nearly 43,000 words, has been in the works nearly since Leo’s election as pope a little more than a year ago.