Pope Leo XIV encyclical addresses AI risks as Anthropic co-founder attends Vatican event

Pope Leo XIV issued his first major written teaching of the papacy on artificial intelligence. The encyclical identifies worker replacement, lowered thresholds for military force, and increased demands on energy and water as primary concerns. The document runs approximately 42,000 words.

It calls for ethical constraints on autonomous weapons and for development of more sustainable data-center technologies.

Ceremony and company participation At the Vatican ceremony marking the release, Pope Leo XIV was joined by Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah. Olah addressed the audience and noted that frontier AI labs operate inside incentives that can conflict with doing the right thing.

The company has spent $1.6 million on lobbying in the first quarter of 2026. Much of that activity supports AI regulation at federal and state levels.

Areas of alignment and divergence The encyclical and the company both identify risks from using AI in warfare. The pope wrote that such systems can shield people from responsibility and reduce enemies to statistics. The company has declined to allow its models for fully autonomous weapons and mass surveillance.

That decision produced a government blacklist and an ongoing court case. The encyclical also states that current AI systems require enormous amounts of energy and water. It calls for technological solutions that reduce environmental impact. Anthropic has committed to covering electricity price increases that consumers face from its facilities.

The company has separately pledged $50 billion for AI infrastructure including data centers.

Reactions from observers Paolo Carozza, a law professor at Notre Dame and co-chair of the Meta Oversight Board, said engagement between the church and the company could remain superficial. He added that dialogue among all actors is necessary. Pete Furlong, senior manager of policy and research at the Center for Humane Technology, said the company’s technology is designed to replace people.

He noted that this goal conflicts with the pope’s statements on the dignity of work. Timnit Gebru, founder of the Distributed Artificial Intelligence Research Institute, wrote that the church should have partnered with exploited data workers and communities affected by data-center water use instead.

Anthropic did not comment on the encyclical or the ceremony.