Pope Leo calls for the disarmament of AI: ‘Machines are tools, not persons’

Pope Leo XIV delivered a Papal Address urging United Nations member states to take concrete steps toward banning lethal autonomous weapons at their upcoming Geneva meeting. He asserted that AI systems are tools rather than persons or moral agents. Consequently, humans bear the sole responsibility to guide, change, and reject AI applications when necessary. This position challenges the treatment of models as independent decision-makers, emphasizing that humans must maintain accountability over how AI is designed and deployed.