10
Loading video...
By Hollie Silverman
News Editor
0
Share
Newsweek is a Trust Project member
See more of our trusted coverage when you search.Prefer Newsweek on Googleto see more of our trusted coverage when you search.
Pope Leo XIV has called for artificial intelligence (AI) to be “disarmed,” urging governments meeting in Geneva next month to move toward banning lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS) and insisting that decisions over life and the use of force remain under human control.
In an X post on Friday, the pope wrote the future of AI was “not pre-determined” and depended on decisions made by the people developing, deploying and regulating the rapidly advancing technology.
“We therefore have the responsibility to guide, change and, when necessary, reject its applications,” Leo said. “A reliable system that serves the human person is of greater value than one that is exceptionally powerful but whose consequences cannot be adequately foreseen or controlled.”
Read More on News
The pope's intervention comes ahead of international discussions in Geneva over LAWS, technology that has generated growing debate over how much control machines should have in identifying and attacking targets.
"Three years ago, we called on States to establish specific prohibitions and restrictions on autonomous weapon systems," Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, and President of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Mirjana Spoljaric, said in a joint statement in August. "We renew this call with even greater urgency. The fundamental concerns remain unchanged, but the risks have intensified. We are now dangerously close to crossing a moral red line: the autonomous targeting of humans by machines."
The two said that weapon technology development has advanced at record speed, "placing increasing strain on legal frameworks," adding that the "gap between technological capability and regulatory constraint has widened, with advanced technologies employed on the battlefield amplifying the risk of harming civilians and civilian infrastructure and aggravating civilian suffering in armed conflict."
"The upcoming Seventh Review Conference of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons in November offers the clearest path available for States to decide to move to negotiate a legally binding instrument," they said. "...We urge States to seize this moment. Continuing to design weapon systems that make it easier to wage war will only undermine our collective efforts towards a more peaceful world."
On Friday, Leo made clear that his principal concern was preserving human responsibility when AI is used in consequential decisions.
“Decisions affecting human life, freedom, and the use of force must always remain subject to effective, informed, and responsible human oversight,” he said. “For this reason, artificial intelligence must be ‘disarmed’, and I encourage the States meeting in Geneva in November to take concrete steps toward banning lethal autonomous weapons.”
Concerns Grow Over AI Safety
The pope’s warning comes amid growing alarm inside the AI industry. Former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon, who previously worked at OpenAI, resigned in September and accused both companies of racing toward “self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives.” Anthropic said it has been transparent about AI’s potential benefits and “unprecedented risks,” while maintaining that its models have some of the industry’s strongest safeguards.
Sam Altman, OpenAI’s chief executive, has also backed calls to slow frontier development, warning that AI could go “very badly” if humanity loses “control of the future to AI” or if too much power is concentrated in one person or company. He said competitive pressure should not be allowed to justify recklessness.
The warnings contrast with President Donald Trump’s more optimistic framing. In September, he signed an executive order directing executive-branch agencies to replace “artificial intelligence” and “AI” with “super intelligence” and “SI” in official communications, arguing that the new terms better reflect the technology’s potential. The change affects federal terminology and does not rename the technology as a matter of law or force private companies to adopt the label.
Newsweek reached out to the United Nations and White House by email Saturday.
...
What Did Pope Leo Say About AI?
Leo also rejected the idea that increasingly sophisticated AI systems should be regarded in the same way as human beings.
“Machines are tools, not persons,” he said Friday. “Today, some propose granting these systems rights, or even legal personhood. Such an approach risks obscuring human responsibility and leaving those who suffer harm to confront a faceless entity.”
Leo argued that AI should be developed for the “common good” rather than primarily benefiting a privileged minority and called for international oversight mechanisms through which AI decisions could be examined and challenged.
"What we currently need are effective international institutions that can safeguard the global common good," he said. "This calls for shared standards, independent oversight, and clear mechanisms of accountability, so that decisions concerning the development and use of AI can be examined, challenged when necessary, and accompanied by appropriate remedies for any harm caused."
The pope did not reject AI outright. Instead, he argued that reliability and human welfare should take precedence over building the most powerful systems possible.
“The decisive question, then, is not simply ‘What can AI do?’ but rather, ‘What purpose should it serve?’” he said in his Vatican address.
Related Story
Pope Leo XIV Warns AI Could Become an ‘Instrument of Domination’
What Has Pope Leo Previously Said About AI?
In September, Leo warned during a visit to France that AI could become an “instrument of domination” if technological advances were not kept at the service of humanity.
“Our efforts in this domain must ensure that new technologies remain at the service of the human person, rather than becoming yet another instrument of domination and injustice,” he said at UNESCO in Paris.
Leo warned of a growing paradox in which society increasingly describes computer systems as possessing “intelligence” while struggling to recognize the inherent dignity of human beings.
His concerns stretch back further. In June 2025, Leo warned that AI, despite its potential benefits, could be misused “for selfish gain at the expense of others, or worse, to foment conflict and aggression.”
He also raised concerns about AI's effects on the intellectual and neurological development of children and young people.
Leo has also built on warnings from his predecessor, Pope Francis. On Friday, he recalled Francis telling G7 leaders in 2024 that AI was both an “exciting and fearsome tool” and that a machine should never be entrusted with the decision to take a human life.
Contact Newsweek editors for this story: Anthony Murray and Steve Mollman.
View 0 Comments
Submit Correction
View Editorial & AI Guidelines