Pope Leo XIV has called for the Catholic Church to form an alliance with artists and cultural institutions to distinguish human creativity from artificial intelligence. The pontiff made the statement on X on Friday, arguing that algorithms lack the "spark of humanity" inherent in art created by people.
The declaration follows a report by The New York Times detailing efforts by Anthropic, the developer of the Claude AI model, to consult with religious scholars. The company reportedly sought to infuse religious morals into its technology. Pope Leo acknowledged the potential benefits of AI but maintained that its progress must not come at the expense of human dignity.
The pope emphasized the pressing need to separate human-made art from machine output. He described an "ontological difference" between the two, noting that AI relies on statistical calculations based on millions of images created by others.
This stance aligns with previous warnings Pope Leo has issued regarding the technology. In the first encyclical of his papacy, he stated there was a need to "disarm" AI to prevent it from dominating humanity. In May, he established a Vatican commission on AI to coordinate the church's policies and work around the technology.
More recently, the pope warned of a "paradise of machines" invading daily activities and urged that warnings from AI researchers be taken seriously. Speaking to reporters in late September, he said, "We have to keep working. We can't sit back and pretend nothing is going to happen." His predecessor, the late Pope Francis, had also warned that AI risked reducing humans into data points.