Contradicting Trump, Pope Leo says AI safety concerns not 'fake news'

ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (AP) — Pope Leo XIV said Monday that concerns about artificial intelligence going rogue are not "fake news" and should be taken seriously, insisting that safety issues raised by AI experts should be discussed and acted on.

Leo, who dedicated his first encyclical to AI and protecting humanity in its wake, was asked during a press conference about what the United States and China especially should be doing to prevent AI from posing catastrophic risks to humanity. President Donald Trump has called concerns about AI going rogue a "hoax."

"This is a problem that I think we need to sit down and talk about," the American pope told reporters returning home from France. "We can't just sit back and pretend nothing is going to happen."

Trump has been a champion of AI, often warning that the United States must remain ahead of China in the technological arms race. He has said efforts to limit the technology were part of a "conspiracy" by his political opponents.

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Several AI giants, including Anthropic, have called for a slowdown in development to give safety measures time to catch up to the fast-moving technology. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, for example, has warned that within six to 12 months AI could be capable of leading a swarm of agents that could take over the entire internet.

Trump said on Sunday he planned to have a late dinner with Amodei, but he has not yet commented on the meeting.

"If someone were to ask me 'Am I in panic mode?' No I'm not. I sleep at night," Leo said. "I do think that the concerns raised by many of the experts, specialists in AI should be taken seriously."

"I don't think that that is 'fake news' as some have said to try and cause whether financial or other some other kind of benefit," Leo said.

The pope, who called for robust AI regulation and a slowdown in the technology in his first encyclical "Magnificent Humanity," is up to speed on developments.

Despite being at the end of a grueling four-day trip to France, Leo noted a news report Monday afternoon about Nvidia introducing guardrails into AI. He also noted that the company has previously resisted outside regulation of AI development.

"We need to continue to invite political leaders, leaders of AI, social organizations, associations to come together and look at what is happening already and what could be down the road," he said.

"To simply say 'Oh it's not going to happen' and close our eyes to it I think is probably not the most responsible way to go about that," he added.

The warning comes as worries about AI grow inside and outside the industry and reports continue to emerge about increasingly powerful systems that solve problems beyond human capacity but could also go rogue and carry out other, more harmful tasks.

The worries have grown so loud that the CEO of OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, said in an interview with Fortune that his company would wait until next year to start selling its stock to investors on Wall Street as it focuses on safety.

Leo noted that ever since he published his encyclical in May, the Vatican has received comments from people interested in being part of a broader conversation about AI. A Vatican commission is working to promote dialogue, study and investigation "to find ways to make sure that AI does not get to a point of destroying humanity or removing humanity from the conversation," he said.

Leo said he was "relatively optimistic" that solutions could be found.

"I think there are enough people seriously interested in that and willing to look at that outside of the questions once again of power, who gets there first," he said.

Leo had identified AI as one of t he biggest challenges to humanity within days of his election.