Pope Leo XIV is pressing governments and technology companies to build international oversight for artificial intelligence before increasingly capable systems outpace the institutions meant to control them.
Reuters reports that Leo returned to the issue in remarks to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences on September 24. He said AI could bring substantial benefits, but warned that it is also creating new risks for international peace, security and social cohesion.
A campaign that predates the latest alarm
The Vatican's work on AI did not begin with the current generation of chatbots. According to Reuters, the Holy See began convening discussions about AI risks in 2019 and backed the 2020 Rome Call for AI Ethics with Microsoft, IBM, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization and the Italian government.
Leo made AI governance an early theme of his papacy. In May 2025, days after taking office, he called for rules that protect human dignity and warned that the technology could intensify misinformation and conflict. His latest remarks extend that argument from commercial systems to geopolitical stability.
Human control is the central test
The Vatican is especially concerned about autonomous weapons and other systems that can move consequential decisions beyond meaningful human supervision. The Rev. Paolo Benanti, a Vatican AI adviser, told Reuters that advanced AI differs from nuclear weapons because software can be copied and distributed widely, making it harder to inventory or contain.
That concern also reaches the information environment. AI-generated manipulation can damage the shared facts that societies need to make decisions, while uneven national rules may leave compliant countries exposed to systems developed elsewhere.
The pope's answer is not a blanket rejection of AI. It is a demand that international standards, auditability and human responsibility keep pace with technical capability. Whether governments can agree on enforceable rules remains unresolved, but the Vatican is treating that coordination problem as a security issue rather than a distant ethical debate.
