Pope Leo XIV has warned in Paris that artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies could undermine humanity, urging greater ethical scrutiny to prevent what he called a “paradise of machines” from shaping daily life.
Speaking alongside President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysée Palace before addressing diplomats and United Nations employees at UNESCO, the pope said technological progress raised fundamental questions about what it means to be human.
“If we are to avoid losing our humanity amid a paradise of machines invading and conditioning our daily lives, there is an urgent need for education in ethical discernment,” he said.
Leo also cautioned that scientific advances must not become “profit-driven ventures promoting genetic manipulation, surrogacy, the trade in human organs or the possibility of arranging one’s own death”. His remarks came a few months after France passed a landmark bill legalising assisted dying.
The pontiff has identified artificial intelligence as one of the greatest challenges facing humanity since the beginning of his papacy. His first encyclical was devoted to the subject, calling for significant regulation and urging developers to work for the common good.
“The paradox has become increasingly evident: while ‘intelligence’ is attributed to computational systems, we struggle to recognise the inalienable dignity of human persons, whose lives are judged according to the criterion of efficiency and, when deemed no longer productive, are rejected and discarded,” he said.
Leo later told reporters he was pleased that his message was reaching AI developers and hoped discussions between technology companies and the Vatican would continue.
“And I think from their perspective, many of them, they’re very much open to looking for ways of making sure that AI does not displace or ultimately destroy humanity, but rather is a tool for human beings,” he said.
The pope also reaffirmed the Vatican’s opposition to nuclear weapons, describing the doctrine of nuclear deterrence as “mistaken” because it was heightening a new arms race.
Thousands of worshippers gathered in Paris during the first day of Leo’s four-day visit to France, the first official papal trip to the country in 18 years. He crossed central Paris in the popemobile before leading a prayer vigil for young people at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis.
Those gathered at the stadium cheered the pope as he called them the “saints of France”. The Vatican estimated that about 300,000 people had come out to see him on Friday.
Although secularism is enshrined in France’s constitution, Leo said “authentic secularity” should not exclude religion “from the public sphere or from education”.
