A progressive pope takes aim at AI and risks killing its miracles

Opinion

A progressive pope takes aim at AI and risks killing its miracles

The pope's new encyclical links AI to the Industrial Revolution, ignoring how that era lifted millions from poverty

By Liz Peek Fox News

Published May 27, 2026 5:00am EDT

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Pope Leo XIV warns Silicon Valley on artificial intelligence regulation

Pope Leo XIV sends a message to Silicon Valley, calling for strong AI oversight to ensure the technology serves the common good. Kurt 'CyberGuy' Knutsson discusses the Vatican's meetings with tech leaders including Meta, Google and Amazon.

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Bernie Sanders’ war against AI just gained a powerful new ally: the pope.

In a new encyclical considered to be his most important policy statement to date, Pope Leo XIV warns that AI "threatens to normalize an anti-human vision" and calls for regulation of the booming industry. According to Vatican News, the pontiff advises that technology must not be concentrated "in the hands of a few," but managed "so that the guiding principle is not solely profit but the dignity of every person and the common good of all people."

Channeling progressive Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who wants a federal moratorium on data center construction to slow the rapidly advancing technology, Pope Leo writes that AI cannot be allowed to throw people out of work "in the name of reducing costs and increasing profit." Like Bernie, the pope "expresses his hopes for a renewal of labor organizations."

The pope has linked his encyclical letter, which The Wall Street Journal writes is "poised to define Leo’s papacy," to an 1891 encyclical titled "Rerum Novarum," or "new things," which criticized social woes stemming from the Industrial Revolution. That missive was written by Pope Leo XIII, the predecessor who inspired the current pope’s choice of name. Leo XIV signed his encyclical, "Magnifica humanitas," on May 15, as did Leo XIII.

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