It’s already too late to stop AI. But before the p(doom), let’s consider the p(boom)

May 30, 2026 — 5:00am

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The two occurred within four days of each other.

First, US President Donald Trump cancelled his planned new executive order on artificial intelligence. It would have created a way for AI developers voluntarily to have their new models checked by federal agencies before public release.

Why? It turns out that he was reacting to a phone call from a big-name tech investor and friend, David Sacks, who thought it was too interventionist. Note that it was to be a voluntary system.

“I didn’t like certain aspects of it,” Trump told reporters. “We’re leading China. We’re leading everybody, and I don’t want to do anything that’s going to get in the way of that.”

That was last week. Then, this week, Pope Leo issued his first encyclical. Its title: “Magnifica humanitas: On safeguarding the human person in the time of artificial intelligence.”

The first American pope wrote that “I ask everyone to abandon the construction of yet another Tower of Babel and to join forces in building up the common good, so that humanity will never lose its beauty”.

Leo does not call for the abandonment of the AI project but for its regulation: “Otherwise, those who control AI will impose their own moral vision, which will become the invisible infrastructure of these systems.” The moral vision of Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg is, so far, prevailing.

And, beyond its regulation, its disarming: “AI is already an environment in which we are immersed, as well as a force with which we must engage. For this reason, merely regulating it is insufficient; it must be disarmed, welcoming and accessible.”

Leo wasn’t reacting to Trump. He’d signed his encyclical 10 days before its release. But what a contrast of visions.

These two Americans, the spiritual leader and the political, speaking within days of each other, present a stark choice of approach to a technology that is now joining nuclear and biowar weapons as a man-made threat of the extinction of our species.

Trump’s decision marks the complete abandonment of any effort to oversee AI, absolute laissez-faire. Leo’s encyclical sets up the management of AI as humanity’s most important mission, the unique demand of our time.

Catholic philosopher Romano Guardini said that “contemporary man has not been trained to use power well”. Trump’s........

© The Sydney Morning Herald