Pope Leo XIV has delivered one of the strongest warnings yet from a global religious leader about artificial intelligence, comparing the risks posed by AI to the biblical story of the Tower of Babel.
In a major encyclical released at the Vatican, the pope argued that artificial intelligence could push humanity toward systems built around control, profit and homogenization instead of human dignity and moral responsibility.
The pope says AI risks reducing humans into “cogs”. The encyclical repeatedly warns about what happens when technology becomes detached from ethics. Pope Leo argued that AI threatens to normalize what he described as an “anti-human vision,” where people are gradually reduced to “mere cogs in a system driven toward ever greater efficiency.”
In Christian tradition, Babel symbolizes a civilization driven by pride, centralized power and human ambition detached from moral responsibility. Leo contrasted this with the rebuilding of Jerusalem, which he described as a model based on cooperation, dignity and coexistence.
The core question, he argued, is not whether humanity should simply accept or reject technology. Instead, it is about deciding what kind of civilization technology is helping to build. Pope Leo warned that immense digital power is becoming concentrated in the hands of a small number of private companies and developers.
He argued that AI systems must be “disarmed” from becoming tools of domination, exclusion and even death.
