The Pope Warns of a 'Paradise of Machines' in Paris

Pope Leo XIV warned in Paris that artificial intelligence could undermine humanity, speaking of a "paradise of machines" at the Elysée Palace during the first days of a four-day state visit to France, Al Jazeera and Le Monde reported. Crowds cheered him in the city, according to Le Monde, after a speech in which he also warned against the dangers of other technologies and urged France to be a "tireless champion of peace."

Le Monde reported that the pope stood firm on bioethics in the same address, condemning surrogacy, the buying of organs and the concept of arranging one's own death. Politico Europe reported that he defended freedom of conscience at the Elysée without naming the far right, as France's populist forces eye power and front-runner Marine Le Pen revives a proposed headscarf ban.

The New York Times framed the trip as a test of Leo's attempt to be "everyone's pope," reaching Roman Catholicism's original European heartlands after a visit to Africa. France 24 reported 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, has revived a longstanding feud within the Church and cast a pall over the visit.