In his first formal speech as its new leader in May, Robert Francis Prevost addressed those adherents as Pope Leo XIV, a papal name chosen in part to meet a revolution: that of AI.
His name choice is a tribute to Leo XIII, who served during the Industrial Revolution at the close of the 19th century, and railed against the new machine-driven economic systems converting workers into commodities.
Upon assuming the papacy in May, Leo XIV told the world that as artificial intelligence ushered in a “new industrial revolution,” the technology would require the “defense of human dignity, justice and labor.”
Under Pope Francis, the Vatican had pushed for a binding international treaty on artificial intelligence, sending the world’s tech CEOs into a defensive crouch.
If Leo XIV continues to marshal the world’s Catholics against AI's alienating potential, Silicon Valley faces a formidable—and unexpected—spiritual counterweight.
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