Peter Thiel Calls Pope Leo XIV a Chinese Agent Over AI Regulation
Updated
Updated · CNN · Jul 2
Peter Thiel Calls Pope Leo XIV a Chinese Agent Over AI Regulation
3 articles · Updated · CNN · Jul 2
Summary
At Aspen Ideas Festival, Peter Thiel said Pope Leo XIV was effectively “working for the Chinese Communists” because the pope’s push for AI regulation would restrain the US more than China.
May’s encyclical “Magnifica Humanitas” urged that AI “must be disarmed” and called for stronger international oversight, which Thiel cast as a threat in the US-China AI race.
The remarks extended a broader attack on Western institutions: Thiel warned of a “democratic-socialist takeover” of the Democratic Party and argued legalistic governance had made the West stagnant and unstable.
Palantir’s co-founder also insisted the company is not fused with the US “deep state,” even as it does billions in federal contracting, and made an unsupported claim that Anthropic could rig the 2028 election.
The Vatican did not comment, and the clash adds to earlier friction after Thiel’s March Rome lectures on the Antichrist reportedly unsettled Catholic institutions near the Holy See.