Amid the unbridled race of Artificial Intelligence, a voice has emerged from the Vatican that is not talking about technology, but about saving humanity.
On August 28, 2026, Pope Leo XIV, in an address to the International Institute of Administrative Sciences broadcast via Vatican News, asked:
“At the speed at which innovations are taking place in AI, will we be able to control these machines in the future? Is humanity risking becoming a victim of its own creations?”
This is the clearest and most official statement on the dangers of AI from any major religious leader to date.
Robert Francis Prevost — history’s first American Pope. He holds doctorates in theology and canon law from institutions in Chicago and Rome. He has been associated with the Order of St. Augustine since 1977. His background is not in technology, but in humanity. That is why his warning is not religious, but human.
According to the Pope, the danger is not limited to AI alone. The real danger is that “today, decisions related to human life are being entrusted to machines.” Once decision-making slips out of human hands, society, economy, and ethics will all be affected.
He urged researchers and policymakers to base the development of AI on “ethics” and to make it “human-centric.” He warned that AI is currently becoming concentrated in the hands of a few large economic and technological corporations, while governments appear incapable of effectively regulating it.
Human history spans 300,000 years, but the digital progress of the last 30 years outweighs all of that. In every revolution, two groups emerge: one that seeks to understand the technology, and another that fears it.
Until 2012, humans could only read DNA. Today, we can also write DNA. This is the greatest revolution in biotechnology. The atomic bomb is also a human invention, and so are life-saving medicines. The problem is not technology — it is the mind that creates and uses it.
Pope Leo’s central message is very clear, AI is meant for human convenience, not for human servitude. Otherwise, the very invention created to serve humanity could one day become a threat to it.
Undoubtedly, human beings are God’s finest creation. And the AI created by this same human being must remain subordinate to the natural, God-given intelligence of humanity.