Pope Leo XIV warned that rapid advancements in artificial intelligence mirror the biblical story of the “Tower of Babel” on Monday, May 25.
The Head of the Catholic Church releases his first encyclical letter titled “Magnifica Humanitas” (Latin for magnificent humanity) in which he argued that AI “threatened to normalise an anti-human vision” and criticised the immense power held by a handful of private tech companies.
The reference to the Tower of Babel is a famous biblical story from the Book of Genesis (Genesis 11:1-9), describing the origins of various human languages.
In the story, it is described that all of humanity originally spoke a single common language. As people started to migrate eastward, they settled in the land of Shinar (ancient Babylon) and decided to build a massive city and a tower “reaching into the heavens.”
The purpose of building the massive city was to make a name for themselves and prevent being scattered across the Earth.
God realised that the unity and ambitions of man would cause pride and hubris. To prevent this from happening, God confused their tongues so that they were unable to communicate with each other. Since they could not communicate, they abandoned the construction of the tower.
Pope warned that without ethical guardrails, AI can have a similar impact on humanity, causing social distrust, unemployment, etc.
The Pope said: “A totalising, singular technological culture risks becoming a new form of oppression,” echoing modern theological interpretations that view the original Babel story as a liberation from forced uniformity.
According to the Pope, there needs to be international regulation to ensure that AI does not concentrate powers in a way that dehumanises people. He stressed that technology needs to serve fraternity and not control it. Pope Leo stressed the possibility of collapse into chaos without humility.
2026-05-25 21:30:00
