As the US and China race on AI, the Vatican presses for global safeguards
Pope Leo is quietly positioning the Vatican as a moral convener in the AI debate and a potential bridge between the rival superpowers.
7 days ago
As Pope Leo XIV prepares to address UNESCO in Paris, the Vatican is pressing for international safeguards on artificial intelligence, centered on human dignity, freedom and the common good. Its campaign comes as the United States and China compete for technological advantage while expressing different views on AI regulation and cooperation. 1
Leo’s September 25 address is due to conclude a UNESCO day focused on AI, education and peace. The article describes it as the first papal visit to the organization in more than four decades, with representatives of all 194 member states expected to attend, including those of the United States and China. 1
In his May encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, Leo called for stronger oversight of technology companies and their AI models, arguing that private interests should not alone determine the direction of a technology with far-reaching effects. He has urged regulation that protects people without stopping innovation. 1
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Holy See’s secretary of state, has called for the pace of AI development to be matched by serious consideration of its consequences. He has argued that a global technology requires shared international rules, warning that fragmented national approaches could put human freedoms at risk. 1
The article says US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping were expected to discuss possible shared AI safeguards at a September 17 summit in Washington. It contrasts Xi’s public calls for international cooperation with the Trump administration’s resistance to comprehensive regulation and its emphasis on the benefits of technological development. 1
The Vatican is seeking to act as a moral and diplomatic interlocutor rather than as a technological competitor. AI researcher John-Clark Levin said Leo could help foster future dialogue between Washington and Beijing, including by mobilizing countries in the Global South, although direct mediation may be premature. 1
The article reports some potential common ground with China: Beijing exercises extensive domestic oversight of AI and has called for international cooperation, while both China and the Vatican have emphasized that developing countries should share in AI’s benefits. It also says Leo’s encyclical received a positive response in China, despite longstanding complications in relations between Beijing and the Holy See. 1
The Vatican’s work extends beyond papal statements. Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia took part in a Gates Foundation event in New York on equity in AI, and the article reports that Bill Gates has expressed interest in Leo’s encyclical and pledged $1 billion to address AI inequality in the Global South. 1
In the United States, about 30 Catholic bishops met with seven AI experts from four technology companies to discuss concerns including job losses and the possibility of AI systems becoming uncontrollable. Bishop Oscar Cantú said some technology representatives were looking to the Church for support in advocating regulation; a bipartisan congressional delegation had also visited the Vatican to discuss AI ethics, human dignity and national security. 1
Vatican-sponsored discussions have also addressed AI’s effects on employment, inequality and the environment, with participants from the Global North and South. Leo has called for employers and trade unions to take part in shaping protections, while Vatican commission member Father Andrea Ciucci warned that the concerns of poorer communities risk being overlooked. 1
Parolin has warned that AI, despite being a major scientific achievement, could erode individual freedom and decision-making. His emphasis on putting “a little heart” into his homilies echoed Leo’s earlier warning to priests against relying on AI to write sermons. 1
Across its AI initiatives, the Vatican is advocating shared responsibility, dialogue and safeguards against the unchecked pursuit of technological power. The article presents Leo’s upcoming UNESCO address as an opportunity to bring that position before an international audience amid debates over geopolitical competition, inequality and human freedom. 1*
Human dignity and the common good in global AI governance
Catholic teaching would judge global AI governance by a basic test: Does it protect the dignity and freedom of every person and serve the good of all, especially the vulnerable—or does it concentrate power and treat people chiefly as data, labor, or consumers? The Church does not prescribe one global regulatory model, but it gives principles for evaluating laws, institutions, and particular AI systems.
Human dignity is inherent; it does not depend on a person’s productivity, intelligence, or economic usefulness. Accordingly, AI’s purposes, methods, and wider social vision must be assessed for whether they respect that dignity and advance the common good. The responsibility belongs across society, guided by subsidiarity—the principle that decisions should be made at the appropriate level, without higher authorities needlessly displacing the responsibilities of individuals and communities.
This means governance must not focus only on whether a system is efficient, profitable, or technically accurate. It should also ask whether its use respects human freedom and judgment, whether it contributes to people’s genuine development, and who bears its risks. AI should assist human decision-making, not make human responsibility disappear.
The common good is not simply the sum of private benefits or the interests of the most powerful states and companies. Antiqua et Nova describes it as the social conditions that help people and groups attain their fulfillment more fully and easily. AI governance should therefore consider the effects of systems on society as a whole, not only their benefits to developers, investors, governments, or immediate users.
Pope Leo XIV has warned that AI should serve the common good rather than become a means of accumulating wealth and power in the hands of a few. He also emphasizes that people are not merely passive consumers of machine-generated content: human dignity involves reflection, free choice, love, and authentic relationships.
A Catholic approach supports cooperation across borders, since AI’s consequences can reach people far beyond the place where a system is designed or deployed. But governance should operate at multiple levels: individuals, families, civil society, companies, public institutions, governments, and international organizations each have responsibilities proper to them. Subsidiarity calls for coordination where problems exceed local capacity, while cautioning against assuming that every decision should be centralized globally.
In practical evaluation, governance should attend to:
These principles do not by themselves settle technical questions such as the exact form of international rules, enforcement mechanisms, or standards for particular applications. They do establish the moral direction: AI governance should be human-centered, accountable, attentive to the vulnerable, and ordered toward the flourishing of the whole human family—not merely technological progress or concentrated power.