Technologists Dismiss Pope Leo XIV's 42,300-Word AI Warning to 1.4 Billion Catholics
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · May 26
Technologists Dismiss Pope Leo XIV's 42,300-Word AI Warning to 1.4 Billion Catholics
10 articles · Updated · The New York Times · May 26
Jeremy Nixon of San Francisco's A.G.I. House said Pope Leo XIV's Vatican appeal for AI safeguards showed the spiritual and tech worlds are "far from aligned."
The split emerged after Leo issued a 42,300-word open letter to the world's 1.4 billion Catholics, arguing AI is fundamentally not human and needs protections against its dangers.
Christopher Olah, an Anthropic co-founder who appeared with the pope, was presented as part of the dialogue Leo wants, but Nixon said Olah's remarks appeared to suggest a sharply different view.
At Bay Area hubs tied to the push for artificial general intelligence, that clash reflects a broader divide between a humanist focus on AI risk and technologists' ambitions for machines that could match the human brain.
The Vatican calls for 'disarming' AI from global competition. Is a world without AI-powered weapons or economic races actually achievable?
The Pope links historical slavery to 'technological enslavement.' What does this new form of subjugation look like today?