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Simon Willison Publishes Notes on Pope Leo XIV's AI Encyclical

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When I woke up this morning I didn't think I'd be spending a bunch of time today getting familiar with Catholic theology, but here we are. Notes on Pope Leo XIV's encyclical on AI. https://simonwillison.net/2026/May/25/encyclical-on-ai/

5:14 PM · May 25, 2026

#193Simon Willison@SIMONW

... plus a bonus section of transcript from the Oxide and Friends 2026 predictions episode in January where, bizarrely, we predicted that something like this would happen - listen here: https://oxide-and-friends.transistor.fm/episodes/predictions-2026/transcript#t=37m13s

Simon: I’d like to tag something on to that one: I think that only works if they can sort of wash that through existing trusted experts. Sam Altman and Dario are constantly publishing essays about this stuff and nobody believes a word they say. Get Barack Obama’s signature on one of these position papers and maybe you’ve got something people might start to trust a little bit.

Adam: Otherwise, it’s just like “leaded gas is good for you”, says Exxon.

Bryan Cantrill: I mean, yeah. God. Obama... let’s go with that, that’s a great one because if it’s like Bill Clinton everyone’s gonna kind of roll their eyes, so it’s gotta be someone who’s got real credibility saying that this is gonna be broad-based... I’d say if they get that person to do it, it’s gonna be revealed that that’s also a bit crooked.

Simon Willison: How about the Pope?

Bryan: The Pope is very into this stuff! That’s a great prediction. We’ve hit pay dirt. The Pope weighing in on LLMs and their economic impact on the world

Simon Willison@simonw

12:14 AM · May 26, 2026 · 5.5K Views

12:29 AM · May 26, 2026 · 3.8K Views

Simon Willison Publishes Notes on Pope Leo XIV's AI Encyclical

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