Pope Leo XIV warns that AI could spread ‘fear and violence’ around the world<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nPope Leo XIV gave his sharpest warning yet about artificial intelligence in a speech to students and teachers in the Cameroonian capital Yaound\u00e9 on Friday, saying the technology risks replacing reality with simulation and the consequences are already playing out on the world stage.<\/p>\n
The timing was amazing. Just days before Leo addressed the Catholic University of Central Africa, US President Donald Trump posted an AI-generated image on Truth Social that apparently depicted himself resembling Christ.<\/p>\n
The post was removed after religious leaders accused him of blasphemy, but not before it sparked a transatlantic dispute between the Pope and the sitting US President.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is at stake is not just the risk of error, but a change in our relationship with truth,\u201d Leo told the audience, speaking to more than 120,000 worshipers who gathered in the sweltering heat of Douala for his historic Mass.<\/p>\n
Leo has often discussed AI after his election victory in May 2025, but on Friday he took the discussion to a new level. According to Leo, AI not only poses a threat to misinformation but also gradually blurs the line between reality and imagination.<\/p>\n
“Polarization, conflict, fear and violence spread,” he said. “The challenge presented by these systems is much greater than it appears: it is not just about the use of new technologies but about the gradual replacement of reality by its simulation.”<\/p>\n
He also condemned the “environmental devastation” caused by rare-earth extraction fueling the development of AI, a direct challenge to the Trump administration’s resource-intensive Africa strategy.<\/p>\n
The dispute between the pontiff and the US president has intensified during Leo’s 11-day visit to Africa. After the Pope criticized the US\u2013Israeli conflict with Iran, Trump branded him “weak on crime and terrible at foreign policy.” When Leo on Thursday condemned “a handful of tyrants” who are destroying the world, Trump responded that the pope needs to understand the realities of an “evil world.”<\/p>\n
Leo, for his part, has shown no signs of backing down, ignoring Catholic US Vice President J.D. Vance’s plea for the church to “stick to matters of morality.”<\/p>\n
Leo’s message was heard in a different way in Cameroon, away from Washington politics. When he arrived on the esplanade of the Japoma Stadium, people danced and chanted, “Long live the Pope.”<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n