Catholics need to develop critical thinking skills to counter the dark side of AI and counter unnatural attachments to chatbots, the pope said this week in a message marking the Church's social communications day.

American-born pope Leo XIV also called on AI creators and platform CEOs to think about something other than maximizing profit and plundering the cultural archive to feed their models.

And he said individuals had a duty to protect their own image, face, and voice to prevent nefarious uses of AI, from cyber bullying to deep fakes.

[1]

Pope Leo was speaking on the Church's 60th World Day of Social Communications, which falls on the feast of St Francis of Sales (as all good Salesians would of course know.)

[2]

[3]

"Faces and voices are sacred," he reminded readers as "God…created us in his image and likeness."

But he swiftly moved from the theological to the technological, warning: "By simulating human voices and faces, wisdom and knowledge, consciousness and responsibility, empathy and friendship… artificial intelligence [could] not only interfere with information ecosystems, but also encroach upon the deepest level of communication, that of human relationships."

[4]

Pope Leo made no mention of a recent conference of exorcists which [5]warned that AI could lead to "new forms of necromancy and communication with the deceased."

But he said the drive to "maximize engagement on social media", and group people into "bubbles of easy consensus and easy outrage" reduces populations' ability to think crucially and made them more polarized.

This is "further exacerbated by a naive and unquestioning reliance on artificial intelligence as an omniscient 'friend,' a source of all knowledge, an archive of every memory, an 'oracle' of all advice."

[6]

He said AI is turning people into "passive consumers of unthought thoughts" while "the masterpieces of human genius in the fields of music, art and literature are being reduced to mere training grounds for machines."

Likewise, lack of transparency in algorithms and "inadequate social representation of data" will trap individuals in networks that can manipulate their thoughts, and exacerbate existing social inequality and injustices.

The Pontiff also highlighted the potential for disinformation and the need for real world reporting, else we descend into mistrust, confusion, and insecurity." (Francis of Sales is both the patron saint of journalists and the deaf.)

And he highlighted the fact that behind this "enormous invisible force that affects us all" are a handful of companies, giving rise to "significant concerns about the oligopolistic control of algorithmic systems and artificial intelligence."

[7]From Intel to the infinite, Pat Gelsinger wants Christian AI to change the world

[8]Thou shalt not let AI run amok: Vatican wants global rules

[9]Nice try, sinners: Pope nixes idea of AI pontiff blessing netizens

[10]White House bans 'woke' AI, but LLMs don't know the truth

He said, "The task laid before us is not to stop digital innovation, but rather to guide it and to be aware of its ambivalent nature." Each one of us needs to raise "our voice in defense of human persons, so that we can truly assimilate these tools as allies."

This meant "those at the helm of online platforms" needed to ensure their business are about more than profit but also consider the common good. Developers need to practice transparency and promote "informed consent."

More prosaically, AI-generated or manipulated content should be clearly labelled, while "authorship and sovereign ownership of the work of journalists and other content creators must be protected."

And media, information, and AI literacy needs to be built into education at all levels, with Catholics developing critical thinking skills – and ensuring their God-given images are not pinched by scammers or AI models.

"We need faces and voices to speak for people again," Leo concluded. "We need to cherish the gift of communication as the deepest truth of humanity, to which all technological innovation should also be oriented." ®

Get our [11]Tech Resources



[1] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aXjvP_2A38S0UGJNH_m_KAAAA1A&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0

[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aXjvP_2A38S0UGJNH_m_KAAAA1A&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aXjvP_2A38S0UGJNH_m_KAAAA1A&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aXjvP_2A38S0UGJNH_m_KAAAA1A&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[5] https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/26/ai_catholic_uni/

[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aXjvP_2A38S0UGJNH_m_KAAAA1A&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[7] https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/03/from_intel_to_the_infinite/

[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/17/vatican_seminar_calls_for_global/

[9] https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/19/pope_vetoes_ai_avatar/

[10] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/24/white_house_wants_no_woke_ai/

[11] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/