Leo urges safeguards as AI raises questions of human dignity
At the Élysée Palace, Pope Leo XIV called for education in ethical discernment and argued that technology should serve people.
Pope Leo XIV used his address at the Élysée Palace in Paris to warn that artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies could undermine human dignity. Speaking beside French President Emmanuel Macron, he called for education in ethical discernment to help people respond to technology shaping daily life.
Leo said AI should be a tool for people, and told reporters he hoped dialogue would continue between technology companies and the Vatican. He has made AI a focus of his pontificate, calling for significant regulation and for developers to work for the common good.
He also warned against scientific progress becoming a profit-driven enterprise involving genetic manipulation, surrogacy, organ trading or assisted dying. France passed a bill legalising assisted dying a few months earlier, according to the source material.
Leo criticised nuclear deterrence as mistaken, arguing it was fuelling a new arms race, and reaffirmed the Vatican’s opposition to nuclear weapons. On religion’s place in public life, he said what he called “authentic secularity” should not exclude it from public life or education.
The four-day trip is described as the first official papal visit to France in 18 years. The Vatican estimated that about 300,000 people came out to see Leo in Paris on Friday; thousands also gathered at a stadium near the city.
