Pope Leo Warns of a 'Paradise of Machines' in Paris, and Italy Reads the Signal

Pope Leo XIV used the opening of a four-day state visit to France to warn that artificial intelligence could undermine humanity, telling an audience at the Elysée Palace that the alternative was a 'paradise of machines', according to Al Jazeera. Le Monde reported that crowds cheered him in Paris, and that he also urged France to be a 'tireless champion of peace' and argued that 'authentic secularity' should not exclude religion.

The visit has become as much about doctrine as diplomacy. Le Monde reported that in the same Paris speech the Pope condemned surrogacy, the buying of organs and the concept of 'arranging one's own death', staking out firm positions on bioethics alongside the warnings on technology. Politico Europe reported that he defended freedom of conscience without naming the far right, at a moment when France's populist forces are eyeing power and front-runner Marine Le Pen has revived a proposed headscarf ban.

The New York Times framed the trip as a deliberate strategy: after visiting Africa, the paper wrote, Leo's four days in France show how he is seeking to appeal both to Roman Catholicism's original heartlands and to the church's newest strongholds. France 24 added a complication, reporting that the Vatican's recent excommunication of followers of the Society of Saint Pius X, an ultra-conservative splinter sect with an extensive network of schools, had revived a longstanding feud within the church ahead of the visit.

The AI theme has produced an awkward footnote. Politico Europe reported that Cardinal Michael Czerny, who leads an AI commission at the Vatican, admitted he does not use artificial intelligence himself, saying he has not had the time to try it. The remark was widely picked up by the foreign press as an illustration of how thinly the church's technological expertise is spread, even as its leader warns about the technology from a presidential palace.

Seen from Italy, the visit is a reminder of how much of the country's international image runs through the Vatican rather than through its government. The Pope's itinerary, his language on conscience and his warnings about machines travel further in the foreign press than most Italian domestic policy. For a region whose industrial base is being told to adopt automation and AI to stay competitive, the distinction the Pope drew in Paris — between tools that serve people and a 'paradise of machines' — is the version of the debate that will be quoted abroad. The wire does not report any Italian government response to the speech, and none should be assumed.