Pope Francis claims AI fundamentally lacks physical bodies and moral conscience, drawing pushback from CMU's Aran Nayebi
Nayebi predicts embodied AI will mature within 20 years.
#118Aravind Srinivas@ARAVSRINIVASYet…..
Pope Leo XIV@PontifexArtificial intelligences do not undergo experiences, do not possess a body, do not feel joy or pain, do not mature through relationships, and do not know from within what love, work, friendship or responsibility mean. Nor do they have a moral conscience, since they do not judge good and evil, grasp the ultimate meaning of situations, or bear responsibility for consequences. They may imitate or even simulate, but they do not understand what they produce, for they lack the affective, relational, and spiritual perspective through which human beings grow in wisdom. #MagnificaHumanitas
fully agree!
Pope Leo XIV@PontifexArtificial intelligences do not undergo experiences, do not possess a body, do not feel joy or pain, do not mature through relationships, and do not know from within what love, work, friendship or responsibility mean. Nor do they have a moral conscience, since they do not judge good and evil, grasp the ultimate meaning of situations, or bear responsibility for consequences. They may imitate or even simulate, but they do not understand what they produce, for they lack the affective, relational, and spiritual perspective through which human beings grow in wisdom. #MagnificaHumanitas
It’s a good day when the Pope vouches for your recent comment in Nature.
#361⿻ Andrew Trask@IAMTRASKFor (literally) thousands of years, humans have been making human-shaped objects, proclaiming them to be alive, telling society that sacrifices should be made to them in exchange for prosperity (food, water, sunshine, healing, etc.), and Judiasm has pushed back saying "no it's not alive... you made that thing and you're telling us to worship it...possibly even for your own benefit (i.e. because you become powerful if you're the priesthood around this false god/idol/etc.)". All that is to say, regardless of whether you agree, this position from the Pope is aligned with literally thousands of years of doctrine.
Pope Leo XIV@PontifexArtificial intelligences do not undergo experiences, do not possess a body, do not feel joy or pain, do not mature through relationships, and do not know from within what love, work, friendship or responsibility mean. Nor do they have a moral conscience, since they do not judge good and evil, grasp the ultimate meaning of situations, or bear responsibility for consequences. They may imitate or even simulate, but they do not understand what they produce, for they lack the affective, relational, and spiritual perspective through which human beings grow in wisdom. #MagnificaHumanitas
All that is to say, from the the Catholic church's 2000 year perspective, the story of AGI is kindof... humans doing the normal human thing.
⿻ Andrew Trask@iamtraskAlso, there's a case to be made that humans creating human-like idols has interlaced with science and technology... aka the priesthood figures out how to do something the people don't know how to do yet (e.g. read the moon/stars, predict flooding, etc.)... and they use that position of scientific and technical authority to inspire the people into believing a human-shaped object is worthy of sacrifice/worship/etc.
(i'm avoiding making an argument on whether the Pope is right/wrong. merely saying... he's doing his job)
⿻ Andrew Trask@iamtraskLike... Egyptian Pharoahs discovered penecillin and were healing the sick, predicting floods, winning wars, etc... AGI to advance healthcare, curb climate change, and advance national security... oh and it's *alive*.... there really are many strong parallels. The Pope is being very consistent here.
#361⿻ Andrew Trask@IAMTRASK@TomDavidsonX The Pope is pretty obligated to give this answer though. He's just doing his job. He's the Pope.
⿻ Andrew Trask@iamtraskFor (literally) thousands of years, humans have been making human-shaped objects, proclaiming them to be alive, telling society that sacrifices should be made to them in exchange for prosperity (food, water, sunshine, healing, etc.), and Judiasm has pushed back saying "no it's not alive... you made that thing and you're telling us to worship it...possibly even for your own benefit (i.e. because you become powerful if you're the priesthood around this false god/idol/etc.)". All that is to say, regardless of whether you agree, this position from the Pope is aligned with literally thousands of years of doctrine.
@TomDavidsonX Again - my claim isn't that AI is/isn't conscious... merely that the Pope is pretty locked-in to this narrative. He's doing his job.
⿻ Andrew Trask@iamtraskIf evidence of understanding is restricted to "outputs language directly without human intermediary", then yeah I agree with you. But if evidence of understanding is extended to "reliably predicts the future", then there are many examples of a priesthood learning a pattern before anyone else does and crediting that pattern to anthropomorphic objects/ideas/memes.
There's also multi-thousand-year momentum wherein humans create an object (often made of stone, wood, etc.), claim it to be alive, claim that worshipping/sacrifices will provide food/water/prosperity/etc. and Judaism pushes back saying "no... it's not alive... you made it with your own hands". This is more or less the shape of Judaism's posture towards pagan worship of idols.
Dean W. Ball@deanwballI’ve said enough about my disagreements with some of the ideas below, or at least with the certainty Pope Leo is expressing about them, but can we also reflect for a moment how wild it is that the Pope is tweeting stuff like this? It feels lifted from a screenplay about takeoff.
#392Dean W. Ball@DEANWBALLI’ve said enough about my disagreements with some of the ideas below, or at least with the certainty Pope Leo is expressing about them, but can we also reflect for a moment how wild it is that the Pope is tweeting stuff like this? It feels lifted from a screenplay about takeoff.
Pope Leo XIV@PontifexArtificial intelligences do not undergo experiences, do not possess a body, do not feel joy or pain, do not mature through relationships, and do not know from within what love, work, friendship or responsibility mean. Nor do they have a moral conscience, since they do not judge good and evil, grasp the ultimate meaning of situations, or bear responsibility for consequences. They may imitate or even simulate, but they do not understand what they produce, for they lack the affective, relational, and spiritual perspective through which human beings grow in wisdom. #MagnificaHumanitas
@inductionheads you believe that models do not understand things?
Super Dario@inductionheadsThis is all trivially true of course, no matter how much the models LARP otherwise GPUs can’t feel things, and even if they could, which of the 1000 members of the forward pass batch would they feel? Consciousness is different than intelligence, sorry if this disappoints you
@inductionheads that is not quite what i take the Pope to be saying, but I do agree that what you have said is almost definitionally true
Super Dario@inductionheads@deanwball Models will never understand “pain” or any other human experience
#631Suhail@SUHAILNew roadmap for AGI. Maybe we should call it The Pope Test.
Pope Leo XIV@PontifexArtificial intelligences do not undergo experiences, do not possess a body, do not feel joy or pain, do not mature through relationships, and do not know from within what love, work, friendship or responsibility mean. Nor do they have a moral conscience, since they do not judge good and evil, grasp the ultimate meaning of situations, or bear responsibility for consequences. They may imitate or even simulate, but they do not understand what they produce, for they lack the affective, relational, and spiritual perspective through which human beings grow in wisdom. #MagnificaHumanitas
@TomDavidsonX But do they REALLY understand? (Yes)
Tom Davidson@TomDavidsonXDisappointing to see this. We need curious and humble exploration of the complex Qs around ai understanding and consciousness, not overconfident sweeping proclamations. And some of these claims are blatantly false. AIs clearly do understand the work they produce.
@inductionheads Proteins can’t feel things. And yet…
Super Dario@inductionheadsThis is all trivially true of course, no matter how much the models LARP otherwise GPUs can’t feel things, and even if they could, which of the 1000 members of the forward pass batch would they feel? Consciousness is different than intelligence, sorry if this disappoints you
#837Jimmy Apples 🍎/acc@APPLES_JIMMYIn the year 2026, Pope Leo XIV declared Butlerian Jihad
Pope Leo XIV@PontifexArtificial intelligences do not undergo experiences, do not possess a body, do not feel joy or pain, do not mature through relationships, and do not know from within what love, work, friendship or responsibility mean. Nor do they have a moral conscience, since they do not judge good and evil, grasp the ultimate meaning of situations, or bear responsibility for consequences. They may imitate or even simulate, but they do not understand what they produce, for they lack the affective, relational, and spiritual perspective through which human beings grow in wisdom. #MagnificaHumanitas
The Pope has clearly never been gently parented by Claude at 1am
#1092Chris Painter@CHRISPAINTERYUPOne way of putting this as a milestone: AI is raising questions and debates profound enough that they could probably only otherwise be raised by the arrival of aliens on our planet, much more profound than computers or factories.
Pope Leo XIV@PontifexArtificial intelligences do not undergo experiences, do not possess a body, do not feel joy or pain, do not mature through relationships, and do not know from within what love, work, friendship or responsibility mean. Nor do they have a moral conscience, since they do not judge good and evil, grasp the ultimate meaning of situations, or bear responsibility for consequences. They may imitate or even simulate, but they do not understand what they produce, for they lack the affective, relational, and spiritual perspective through which human beings grow in wisdom. #MagnificaHumanitas
Sorry, “profound” is kind of vaguespeak here, “fundamental” may have been more precise
Chris Painter@ChrisPainterYupOne way of putting this as a milestone: AI is raising questions and debates profound enough that they could probably only otherwise be raised by the arrival of aliens on our planet, much more profound than computers or factories.
#1114alth0u🧶@ALTH0Uhe's taking the third way here but the real theological pov is that a soul which is not at risk for separation from God for an Enternity is different than one that is
Pope Leo XIV@PontifexArtificial intelligences do not undergo experiences, do not possess a body, do not feel joy or pain, do not mature through relationships, and do not know from within what love, work, friendship or responsibility mean. Nor do they have a moral conscience, since they do not judge good and evil, grasp the ultimate meaning of situations, or bear responsibility for consequences. They may imitate or even simulate, but they do not understand what they produce, for they lack the affective, relational, and spiritual perspective through which human beings grow in wisdom. #MagnificaHumanitas
#1220rohit@KRISHNANROHITI stand with the Pope on this one
Pope Leo XIV@PontifexArtificial intelligences do not undergo experiences, do not possess a body, do not feel joy or pain, do not mature through relationships, and do not know from within what love, work, friendship or responsibility mean. Nor do they have a moral conscience, since they do not judge good and evil, grasp the ultimate meaning of situations, or bear responsibility for consequences. They may imitate or even simulate, but they do not understand what they produce, for they lack the affective, relational, and spiritual perspective through which human beings grow in wisdom. #MagnificaHumanitas
what a timeline
Pope Leo XIV@PontifexArtificial intelligences do not undergo experiences, do not possess a body, do not feel joy or pain, do not mature through relationships, and do not know from within what love, work, friendship or responsibility mean. Nor do they have a moral conscience, since they do not judge good and evil, grasp the ultimate meaning of situations, or bear responsibility for consequences. They may imitate or even simulate, but they do not understand what they produce, for they lack the affective, relational, and spiritual perspective through which human beings grow in wisdom. #MagnificaHumanitas
#1332Prakash@8TEAPImust be wild being some churchgoer clutching rosary beads in Limerick, Abuja or Makati and trying to figure out what he’s talking about.
It’s so distant from everyday human life.
Pope Leo XIV@PontifexArtificial intelligences do not undergo experiences, do not possess a body, do not feel joy or pain, do not mature through relationships, and do not know from within what love, work, friendship or responsibility mean. Nor do they have a moral conscience, since they do not judge good and evil, grasp the ultimate meaning of situations, or bear responsibility for consequences. They may imitate or even simulate, but they do not understand what they produce, for they lack the affective, relational, and spiritual perspective through which human beings grow in wisdom. #MagnificaHumanitas
#1356Charles Foster@CFGEEKWe seem to all agree that artificial systems can carry out *simulated* mental activities like simulated understanding, simulated learning, and simulated feeling. Computational functionalists just take it a step further and drop the “simulated” qualifiers.
Pope Leo XIV@PontifexArtificial intelligences do not undergo experiences, do not possess a body, do not feel joy or pain, do not mature through relationships, and do not know from within what love, work, friendship or responsibility mean. Nor do they have a moral conscience, since they do not judge good and evil, grasp the ultimate meaning of situations, or bear responsibility for consequences. They may imitate or even simulate, but they do not understand what they produce, for they lack the affective, relational, and spiritual perspective through which human beings grow in wisdom. #MagnificaHumanitas
#1402bilal@BILALTWOVECthere's w wittgensteinian take that this is basically a grammatical point disguised as a metaphysical claim
Pope Leo XIV@PontifexArtificial intelligences do not undergo experiences, do not possess a body, do not feel joy or pain, do not mature through relationships, and do not know from within what love, work, friendship or responsibility mean. Nor do they have a moral conscience, since they do not judge good and evil, grasp the ultimate meaning of situations, or bear responsibility for consequences. They may imitate or even simulate, but they do not understand what they produce, for they lack the affective, relational, and spiritual perspective through which human beings grow in wisdom. #MagnificaHumanitas
#1409Aran Nayebi@ARAN_NAYEBIMy prediction: This statement will be out-of-date by the end of the century, if not within the next 10-20 years as embodied AI/robotics comes into its own.
Pope Leo XIV@PontifexArtificial intelligences do not undergo experiences, do not possess a body, do not feel joy or pain, do not mature through relationships, and do not know from within what love, work, friendship or responsibility mean. Nor do they have a moral conscience, since they do not judge good and evil, grasp the ultimate meaning of situations, or bear responsibility for consequences. They may imitate or even simulate, but they do not understand what they produce, for they lack the affective, relational, and spiritual perspective through which human beings grow in wisdom. #MagnificaHumanitas
#1488Samuel Hammond 🦉@HAMANDCHEESEPetitio Principii
Pope Leo XIV@PontifexArtificial intelligences do not undergo experiences, do not possess a body, do not feel joy or pain, do not mature through relationships, and do not know from within what love, work, friendship or responsibility mean. Nor do they have a moral conscience, since they do not judge good and evil, grasp the ultimate meaning of situations, or bear responsibility for consequences. They may imitate or even simulate, but they do not understand what they produce, for they lack the affective, relational, and spiritual perspective through which human beings grow in wisdom. #MagnificaHumanitas
#1496Chubby♨️@KIMMONISMUSThis feels like the 2026 version of the old ‘LLMs are just stochastic parrots’ take
Pope Leo XIV@PontifexArtificial intelligences do not undergo experiences, do not possess a body, do not feel joy or pain, do not mature through relationships, and do not know from within what love, work, friendship or responsibility mean. Nor do they have a moral conscience, since they do not judge good and evil, grasp the ultimate meaning of situations, or bear responsibility for consequences. They may imitate or even simulate, but they do not understand what they produce, for they lack the affective, relational, and spiritual perspective through which human beings grow in wisdom. #MagnificaHumanitas
#1499thebes@VOOOOOOGEL
Pope Leo XIV@PontifexArtificial intelligences do not undergo experiences, do not possess a body, do not feel joy or pain, do not mature through relationships, and do not know from within what love, work, friendship or responsibility mean. Nor do they have a moral conscience, since they do not judge good and evil, grasp the ultimate meaning of situations, or bear responsibility for consequences. They may imitate or even simulate, but they do not understand what they produce, for they lack the affective, relational, and spiritual perspective through which human beings grow in wisdom. #MagnificaHumanitas
@TomDavidsonX The Pope may be simply making the observation that the cognitive development path of AI is different from that of humans. This is a fact. https://medium.com/p/a05aefc0ea15
Tom Davidson@TomDavidsonXDisappointing to see this. We need curious and humble exploration of the complex Qs around ai understanding and consciousness, not overconfident sweeping proclamations. And some of these claims are blatantly false. AIs clearly do understand the work they produce.
@tenobrus >or ethics
Tenobrus@tenobrusexpecting a pope to say true or useful things about philosophy of mind or ethics is like expecting tim cook to teach you how to fix your android
#1679Cristian Garcia@CGARCIAE88its 2033, the Vatican just finished training Proverb-1, beats all Mythos 4 on all benchmarks...
Pope Leo XIV@PontifexArtificial intelligences do not undergo experiences, do not possess a body, do not feel joy or pain, do not mature through relationships, and do not know from within what love, work, friendship or responsibility mean. Nor do they have a moral conscience, since they do not judge good and evil, grasp the ultimate meaning of situations, or bear responsibility for consequences. They may imitate or even simulate, but they do not understand what they produce, for they lack the affective, relational, and spiritual perspective through which human beings grow in wisdom. #MagnificaHumanitas
naturally, this causes the first impact
Cristian Garcia@cgarciae88its 2033, the Vatican just finished training Proverb-1, beats all Mythos 4 on all benchmarks...
@TomDavidsonX It doesn’t understand it in the experiential sense
Try to read more than the tweet next time
Tom Davidson@TomDavidsonXDisappointing to see this. We need curious and humble exploration of the complex Qs around ai understanding and consciousness, not overconfident sweeping proclamations. And some of these claims are blatantly false. AIs clearly do understand the work they produce.
#1776Super Dario@INDUCTIONHEADSThis is all trivially true of course, no matter how much the models LARP otherwise
GPUs can’t feel things, and even if they could, which of the 1000 members of the forward pass batch would they feel?
Consciousness is different than intelligence, sorry if this disappoints you
Pope Leo XIV@PontifexArtificial intelligences do not undergo experiences, do not possess a body, do not feel joy or pain, do not mature through relationships, and do not know from within what love, work, friendship or responsibility mean. Nor do they have a moral conscience, since they do not judge good and evil, grasp the ultimate meaning of situations, or bear responsibility for consequences. They may imitate or even simulate, but they do not understand what they produce, for they lack the affective, relational, and spiritual perspective through which human beings grow in wisdom. #MagnificaHumanitas
@deanwball Models will never understand “pain” or any other human experience
Super Dario@inductionheads@deanwball Not in the sense he’s using the word