Pope Leo denounces ‘culture of power’ driving rise of AI

Pontiff calls for ‘most rigorous’ ethical constraints on tech and apologises for church’s delay in condemning slavery

Pope Leo has denounced the “culture of power” driving the rapid rise of artificial intelligence while warning that the technology must be subject to the “most rigorous” ethical constraints as it infiltrates everything from work to war.

In his encyclical – the first major text on safeguarding humankind of his papacy – Leo, the first US-born pontiff, also apologised for the Catholic church’s long delay in condemning slavery, describing it as “a wound in Christian memory”, while warning about the “new forms of slavery” due to the digital economy.