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World

Pope Leo says AI doom fears are not 'fake news' in apparent rebuke of Trump

Pope Leo said on Monday that fears artificial intelligence could destroy humanity are not 'fake news' and should be taken seriously, in an apparent rebuke of Donald Trump.

By Sarah Whitfield · · 2 min read

Pope Leo said on Monday that concerns artificial intelligence could destroy the world are not “fake news” and should be taken seriously, in an apparent rebuke of US President Donald Trump.

The first US pope, who has warned of the dangers of AI throughout his 16-month papacy, also directly criticised technology chief executives who have argued there should be no guardrails on the technology.

“I do think that the concerns raised by many of the experts, specialists in AI, should be taken seriously,” the pontiff told a press conference on his flight back to Rome after a four-day trip to France. “I don’t think that that is fake news, as some have said.”

Trump told the UN General Assembly last week that he believed fears about the dangers to humanity from AI were a “hoax”.

Leo said he had read on Monday that the head of chipmaker Nvidia had announced there could be a way to insert guardrails into certain AI models. But he expressed scepticism, adding: “He’s the same one, however, that says there should be no limits placed and no government regulation.”

Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang told CBS News this month that he agreed with Trump that safety concerns about AI were overblown.

The pope urged the world “to promote dialogue, study, investigation, to find ways to make sure that AI does not get to a point where it could destroy humanity.”

Trump is to meet technology chief executives on artificial intelligence on Tuesday at the White House. Jensen Huang, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Anthropic’s Dario Amodei and OpenAI’s Greg Brockman are among those expected to meet Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson, according to sources familiar with the matter, with Google chief Sundar Pichai and SpaceXAI executive Elon Musk also possible attendees. Johnson said the talks would focus on finding a balance between innovation and oversight, warning the US risks losing the AI race to China if it decides to “hyper-regulate this”.

Sources

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