Pope Leo’s first encyclical focuses on concerns about artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence has moved to the center of the Vatican’s moral agenda, with Pope Leo XIV releasing his first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, or Magnificent Humanity, in a closely watched statement of intent from the new pontiff.

The pope signed the document on 15 May, deliberately tying it to the 135th anniversary of the landmark encyclical issued by the last pope to take the name Leo – Pope Leo XIII.

That document, Rerum Novarum, confronted the social and economic shocks unleashed by the Industrial Revolution in the late 1800s.

Now Pope Leo XIV has turned to the upheaval of the present age – Artificial Intelligence.

For the Vatican, the public presentation of a papal encyclical marks an unusual step and underlines how much weight the pope is placing on the text.

It also drew keen attention to who appeared beside him for the launch.

Pope Leo shakes hands with Christopher Olah ahead of the presentation

Among the cardinals and theologians on the panel sat the co-founder of Anthropic, one of the world’s most influential AI companies.

Christopher Olah helped found the US company – creator of the AI system Claude – in 2021.

He has said Anthropic is an AI lab centred on the safety of large models.

His place on a panel with senior church figures was always likely to invite questions, with ethics and geopolitics hovering in the background.

Anthropic angered the Trump administration earlier this year after refusing a Pentagon request for unconditional use of its Claude AI models.

The clash prompted the US president to demand the government “immediately” stop using Anthropic technology.

Anthropic responded by vowing to sue over what it called “intimidation” and said its systems should not be used for the mass surveillance of US citizens or deployed in fully autonomous weapons systems.

Earlier this month, the Pentagon said it had reached agreements with seven AI companies – without Anthropic – to bring their advanced capabilities onto the US Department of Defense’s classified networks, part of a broader push to widen the pool of AI firms working with the military.

Some observers believe Mr Olah’s appearance at the encyclical’s publication could sharpen the already public dispute between Pope Leo and Donald Trump, which has intensified in recent weeks.

Christopher Olah joined a panel of theologians and cardinals at the presentation

Only last week, Pope Leo forcefully condemned the use of AI in autonomous weapons and the militarisation of emerging technologies during a speech at Rome’s La Sapienza University.

He warned that spending on AI and high-tech arms was pushing the world into a “spiral of annihilation”.

The Vatican, however, did not arrive late to the issue of artificial intelligence.

Technology figures in Silicon Valley began alerting the Holy See to what lay ahead as early as 2016.

People in Silicon Valley urged senior Vatican officials, including Bishop Paul Tighe of Co Meath, to begin grappling with the implications.

Contacts between the Vatican and Silicon Valley representatives have continued over the past decade.

The Vatican has long seen promise in AI, especially in fields such as medicine and education.

At the same time, it has shown clear unease about how the technology could be exploited.

The pope has also voiced concern about jobs being lost because of AI.

In an irony that will not be lost on many, Mr Olah’s company is now looking for new offices in Dublin as it expands its EU Headquarters.

In March, the IDA said Anthropic had announced plans to significantly expand its Dublin presence over the coming year.

Even so, figures released by the Central Statistics Office last week showed employment in the tech sector had fallen.

Beyond labour and threats to jobs, the encyclical is expected to range across justice, peace and morality.

The substantial text amounts to the first major signpost in Catholic teaching on AI and is likely to help define Pope Leo’s pontificate in the years ahead.