There really is a spoon: The Vatican opposed the White House on the issue of AI

The discussion about the future and the impact of neural network technologies on it has reached the highest level. With a difference of several days, US President Donald Trump canceled the planned signing of a decree on state control over artificial intelligence technologies, and the Vatican published the encyclical Magnifica Humanitas ("Magnificent Humanity"), in which he warned of the danger of uncontrolled development of AI. Apart from the philosophical side of the issue, the correspondence debate has a broad political aspect. Izvestia will tell about him.

At the last moment

On May 20, Donald Trump canceled a previously scheduled signing ceremony for the decree on the regulation of artificial intelligence. According to WP, the "industry leaders" with whom Trump held telephone conversations a few hours before the ceremony were able to convince the president. Among the interlocutors, the publication names David Sachs, the former head of the AI and cryptocurrencies department, Elon Musk, the head of Tesla and SpaceX, and Mark Zuckerberg, the head of Meta (recognized as extremist and banned in the Russian Federation). Trump explained his decision for geopolitical reasons: "I didn't like some points. Now we are ahead of China and everyone else in the world, and nothing should hinder this leadership," he said.

It is noteworthy that the decree provided only for a voluntary control mechanism, in which the technology giants themselves would have to transfer new AI models to government agencies.

Babylon, Rome or Zion

On May 25, the Vatican published the encyclical "Magnificent Humanity." The Holy See traditionally has a special relationship with symbolism. The message was timed to coincide with the anniversary of another encyclical written by Pope Leo XIII in 1891, Rerum Novarum ("... on new phenomena"), dedicated to socialist ideology and relations between classes.

In Magnifica Humanitas, Leo XIV declares that artificial intelligence is not just another technology and points out the importance of the ethical side of its use, as well as independent control. Otherwise, it is claimed, the rules will be imposed by those who control the data, infrastructure and computing power. "Humanity, created by God in all his greatness, today faces a crucial choice: either to build a new Tower of Babel ... The risk of dehumanization — building a future in which there is no place for God, and man becomes only a means to an end — is an ancient and eternally new temptation, which today takes on a technical form," writes The Vatican.

Conflict across the ocean

The relationship between Donald Trump and Leo XIV has never been perfect since the latter's election. The American president has already called his counterpart "weak on crime issues" and "failed in foreign policy."

The most recent episode was an absentee discussion about the US-Israeli aggression against Iran. The Vatican expressed its position with an obvious hint. "The world is being ravaged by a bunch of tyrants, <...> woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their military, economic and political gain, dragging the sacred into darkness and filth," Sky News quoted the pontiff as saying.

Trump's response was no less direct. The Pope, he said, is "endangering millions of Catholics" by allowing Iran to advance the development of nuclear weapons.

Two bosses

Catholics, by the way, make up about 20% of the American population and have a completely different level of political consolidation than representatives of other Christian denominations. In the 2016 and 2024 elections, they voted for Trump in a significant majority. Obviously, the White House administration does not intend to once again test the already endless patience of the conservative electorate.

At the same time, according to a WSJ survey, the majority of Americans are wary of the rapid and uncontrolled development of AI technologies.

In the middle of the conflict between the President of the United States and the Pope is J. D. Vance. The situation is ambiguous for the second person in the United States, a Catholic and the main contender for the post of head of state in the next election.

Back in mid-April, in an interview with Fox News, Vance actually asked the Vatican to stop interfering in American politics. "Deal with moral issues, issues <...> concerning, you know, what is happening in the church, and let the president of the United States dictate public policy," he said.

Rome, in turn, reacted as if it had not noticed the disturbance from overseas. Leo XIV stated that his position does not depend on what the United States thinks and does.

"And yet, as it turned out, it was perceived as if I was trying to debate with the president again, which does not interest me at all," the pontiff added.

As a result, Secretary of State Marco Rubio flew to settle the crisis. However, for Vance, artificial intelligence policy has another context. The sponsor of his political career, Peter Thiel, co—founder of PayPal and Palantir, preaches a religious view of the situation, just like the pope, but with completely opposite conclusions. The billionaire does not believe in the fairness and objectivity of control. Last September, in a well-known manifesto, he proclaimed that attempts to regulate AI technologies would "accelerate the coming of the Antichrist," and quoted sacred texts. "When they say, 'Peace and security,' then destruction will suddenly overtake them" (1 Thess 5:3) for Thiel, it is a prediction of a totalitarian dystopia.

Another point of view

In the United States, however, there is another point of view that characterizes distrust of both the state and technology companies. It was expressed by Chris Olah, the creator of the Claude neural network and co-founder of the company Anthropic. Commenting on the encyclical, he called for preventing the privatization of AI technology by private corporations. In his opinion, it is necessary to involve both the state, public figures, and religious leaders in the discussion. Together, they should become a "moral imperative on a historical scale."

It is worth recalling that recently, the company Anthropic was at the center of a scandal involving the Pentagon. The US Department of War cancelled a major contract and blacklisted the company due to the fact that Anthropic refused to approve the use of its AI developments for mass surveillance and in autonomous weapons systems.

Anyway, while world leaders are trying to figure out whether artificial intelligence needs control and whose, the new technology is already being used by the military. And as recent events show, AI calculations often lead to the death of innocents.