Pope Leo has called for a ‘robust legal framework’ to be put in place to regulate AI, warning that autonomous weapons systems have advanced ‘practically beyond any human reach to govern them’ in a sweeping new encyclical
Pope Leo has called on governments to decelerate and rigorously oversee the advancement of AI systems in his first major document, published on Monday.
Speaking at a Vatican event to launch the text, the first US pope voiced his alarm that certain autonomous weapons systems have progressed “practically beyond any human reach to govern them”.
Pope Leo, who has adopted a more assertive stance in recent months and has attracted criticism from Donald Trump following his condemnation of the Iran war, made several passionate pleas to world leaders in the extensive document, known as an encyclical. The head of the Catholic Church argued that ownership of AI data should not rest exclusively in private hands, urged policy-makers to safeguard workers’ rights and protect children from the technology, and called for a reduction in rivalry between AI companies.
In the text, entitled Magnifica Humanitas (Magnificent Humanity), he said: “What is needed is a more active political involvement that is capable of slowing things down when everything is accelerating.”
The pope called for “robust legal frameworks, independent oversight, informed users and a political system that does not abdicate its responsibility.”
Encyclicals represent one of the most authoritative forms of teaching from a pontiff to the Church’s 1.4 billion members, reports the Express.
Monday’s eagerly awaited text, extending to nearly 43,000 words, has been under development almost since Leo’s election as pope just over a year ago. The document, which focused primarily on AI, also condemned the prevalence of armed conflicts across the globe.
He said: “The past 60 years have been marked by conflicts of astonishing brutality, often affecting civilian populations on a massive scale. Humanity is slipping into a violent culture of power, where peace no longer appears as a responsibility to be taken on, but as a fragile interval between conflicts.”
In his encyclical, Leo also delivered one of the most explicit papal rejections to date of the just war theory, a teaching the Church has employed since at least the fifth century to assess global conflicts.
The teaching broadly states that military action should only be undertaken to counter aggression.
“The ‘just war’ theory which has all too often been used to justify any kind of war, is now outdated,” wrote Leo. “The use of force, violence and weapons reflects a relational poverty that always has disastrous consequences for civilian populations.”
The pontiff also stated that any deployment of AI in military operations “must be subject to the most rigorous ethical constraints” and declared it “not permissible” to allow AI systems to make lethal decisions.
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