Pope Leo XIV Asks the AI Industry to ‘Cultivate Moral Discernment’

AI and its implications on society are top of mind for a lot of people, including Pope Leo XIV.

The first-ever American pope addressed AI leaders in an X post on Friday, about a week after he wrote a message to those attending the Builders AI Forum 2025. The forum is dedicated to fostering a community that supports the development of AI products aligned with the Catholic Church’s mission.

“Technological innovation can be a form of participation in the divine act of creation. It carries an ethical and spiritual weight, for every design choice expresses a vision of humanity,” Pope Leo XIV wrote on X. “The Church therefore calls all builders of #AI to cultivate moral discernment as a fundamental part of their work—to develop systems that reflect justice, solidarity, and a genuine reverence for life.”

In his message to the Builders AI Forum 2025 participants, Pope Leo XIV said their work can’t be “confined to research labs or investment portfolios.”

“It must be a profoundly ecclesial endeavor. Whether designing algorithms for Catholic education, tools for compassionate healthcare, or creative platforms that tell the Christian story with truth and beauty, each participant contributes to a shared mission: to place technology at the service of evangelization and the integral development of every person,” the pope wrote.

Pope Leo’s remarks come as companies all over the world race to develop the age-defining technology. Big Tech companies like Google, Microsoft, and Meta are investing heavily in AI, while startups like Anthropic and OpenAI are leading the way with products like Claude and ChatGPT.

The technology is already transforming society. Some worry, however, that in the pursuit of being the first to change the world, tech companies are forgoing safety protocols that could cause serious disruption to jobs, the economy, and even humanity as a whole.

Since becoming the head of the Catholic Church in May, Pope Leo XIV hasn’t shied away from discussing AI. While addressing the College of Cardinals that same month, he said AI poses new challenges for “human dignity” and “justice.”

“In our own day, the Church offers to everyone the treasury of her social teaching in response to another industrial revolution and to developments in the field of artificial intelligence that pose new challenges for the defence of human dignity, justice, and labor,” he said.