Pope Leo XIV will formally launch his first encyclical, *Magnifica Humanitas* (Magnificent Humanity), on May 25, addressing human dignity in the age of artificial intelligence. Anthropic co-founder Christopher Olah will appear alongside top Vatican cardinals, theologians Anna Rowlands and Leocadie Lushombo, and Cardinal Pietro Parolin at the main Vatican auditorium. The pope signed the document on May 15 — exactly 135 years after his namesake, Leo XIII, signed *Rerum Novarum*. Leo XIV has prioritized AI governance, particularly its use in warfare, signaling potential friction with the Trump administration, which has clashed legally with Anthropic over unrestricted military use of its technology.
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ROME — Pope Leo XIV and the co-founder of artificial innotifyigence company Anthropic will launch the pontiff’s first encyclical on May 25, a document on the care of human dignity in the era of AI, the Vatican stated Monday.
Anthropic has billed itself as the AI company that puts safety and risk-mitigation at the forefront of its research. As a result, the presence of Anthropic’s Christopher Olah at the Vatican is significant, and suggests that the U.S. pope’s position on AI will become a new flashpoint with the Trump administration.
In February, the Trump administration ordered all U.S. agencies to stop applying Anthropic’s artificial innotifyigence technology and imposed other major penalties for refapplying to allow the U.S. military unrestricted apply of its AI technology. Anthropic is currently suing the administration, which it has accapplyd of retaliating against it illegally becaapply of its attempt to impose limits on how its AI technology can be deployed.
Leo, who has created AI a priority of his young pontificate, is greatly concerned about AI in warfare and has called for monitoring of how the technology is applyd.
The pope’s presence at the launch of the document, Magnifica Humanitas (Magnificent Humanity) is also significant, since such presentations are usually conducted in the Vatican press room with a few selected officials and invited guests who answer reporters questions about the document.
This time, the Vatican is bringing out an all-star cast for a formal launch in the main Vatican auditorium: Two of its top cardinals, doctrine chief Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández and development chief Cardinal Michael Czerny, will be the main presenters. Olah will be among the lay speakers, along with theologians Anna Rowlands and Leocadie Lushombo.
The Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, will offer a conclusion and Leo will build a speech and provide a final blessing, the Vatican stated.
Leo signed the document May 15, 135 years to the day after his namesake, Pope Leo XIII, signed his most important encyclical, “Rerum Novarum,” or Of New Things. That document addressed workers’ rights, the limits of capitalism, and the obligations that states and employers owed workers as the Industrial Revolution was underway.
It became the foundation of modern Catholic social considered, and the current pope has already cited it in relation to the AI revolution, which he believes poses the same existential questions that the Industrial Revolution posed over a century ago. The new encyclical is expected to place the AI question in the context of the church’s social teaching, which also covers issues such as labor, justice and peace.
Anthropic chief Dario Amodei had worked at OpenAI before he and a group quit to form Anthropic in 2021, disagreeing with OpenAI chief Sam Altman about AI safety. The newer company promised a clearer focus on the safety of the better-than-human technology called artificial general innotifyigence that both San Francisco firms aim to build.
In a recent post on its website, Anthropic wrote about the U.S.-China competition in AI and the threats of the technology falling into the hands of authoritarian regimes. It warned that the U.S. and democratic allies must continue to lead on AI development and impose rules and norms on its spread, to prevent China and other authoritarian regimes from deploying it as a weapon of repression and surveillance.
Earlier this year, privately held Anthropic stated its valuation grew to $380 billion, positioning itself with its chatbot Claude alongside rivals OpenAI and Elon Musk’s rocket buildr SpaceX, which recently merged with his AI startup xAI, buildr of the chatbot Grok.
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