Pope Leo's call for greater artificial intelligence regulation generated fresh debate on Tuesday, as the leader of the world's Roman Catholics laid out his case for more technology oversight.
"Among the goods that are universally intended for everyone, we must also include new forms of property, such as patents, algorithms, digital platforms, technological infrastructure and data," the pontiff said.
Too many of those goods are "concentrated in the hands of a few", he added.
The Pope was speaking on Tuesday, a day after issuing an encyclical and recommending that governments be more methodical when investing in and developing AI – while also exercising more regulatory oversight over the technology.
During Monday's event at the Vatican, he also warned about hypothetical scenarios in which AI could speed up the spread of misinformation and lead to military conflicts.
Making an appearance during the event was Chris Olah, co-founder of Anthropic, which, unlike many AI technology firms, has pushed for slower development and more regulation.
Mr Olah called Pope Leo's comments "just the beginning – the start of a long collaboration between those of us who are building this and those who can see what we, from inside, cannot".
Some in conservative-leaning political circles expressed scepticism over the Pope's warnings about AI. But this may stem from President Donald Trump's continuing spat with the pontiff, with the US leader at one point accusing Pope Leo of being "weak on crime".
Mr Trump's Interior Secretary Doug Burgum implied, while speaking to Fox Business, that it wasn't appropriate for the leader of the Catholic Church to give an opinion on matters such as AI.
"I didn't know that technology editorialising was part of the role of being Pope," he said before pivoting to the topic of data centre construction.
"The future is very bright if we can make sure we get this stuff built."
Adam Thierer, senior fellow at the R Street think tank, had more of a critical reaction to the Pope's AI message.
In a Substack article posted on Monday, he said that the Pope had failed to "provide a more holistic and historically grounded perspective on the role innovation plays in improving our world".
The pontiff's encyclical didn't "account for the astonishing ability of humans to 'muddle through' and repeatedly overcome adversity", Mr Thierer added.
David Sacks, Mr Trump's former AI and cryptocurrency adviser, said that although the pontiff was right to say that AI must serve humanity, he disagreed with other comments.
"If we hand governments sweeping power over AI development in the name of safety, how do we prevent it from being used to censor, surveil and control citizens — as Orwell foretold in 1984?" he posted on X.
Future of Life Institute, a US-based non-profit group that promotes “transformative technology towards benefiting life and away from extreme large-scale risks”, welcomed Pope Leo's comments.
"The encyclical is clear in its exhortation to reject human replacement," Future of Life Institute's religious outreach lead Will Jones said.
"This is a direct rebuke of the leading AI companies' stated goal of creating smarter-than-human superintelligence, and it is also an acknowledgement that AI tools, not autonomous general purpose systems, are the key to a flourishing human future," he added.
The Pope also said in a post on X that the world "cannot allow a handful of actors" to dictate how AI affects life.
Jack Dorsey the founder of Twitter and BitChat agreed and responded: "Yes."
Mr Trump has not yet responded to Pope Leo's comments on AI.
Since he was named leader of the Catholic Church last year, Pope Leo has frequently addressed technology and other contemporary issues.
In May, during his inaugural address to the College of Cardinals, the Pope said AI development, and the worries accompanying it, were in part an inspiration behind his choice of name.
“Pope Leo XIII, with the historic Encyclical Rerum novarum, addressed the social question in the context of the first great industrial revolution,” he said, according to Vatican News.
