Pope Urges the United Nations to "Disarm" AI

Pope Leo XIV laid out his stance bluntly. In his Friday address, he called for AI systems to be "disarmed", stressing that humans "have the responsibility to guide, adjust, and reject their applications when necessary".

The specific action is targeted at next month's event in Geneva. He urged UN member states to "take concrete steps to ban lethal autonomous weapons" during the conference.

This position is not a random remark. It follows the Pope's first major document released back in May, an encyclical themed "Protecting Human Personhood in the Age of Artificial Intelligence". Its core judgment boils down to one single sentence: machines are tools, not people.

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The Pope warned in his speech about the risks of AI being misused. His logic is simple: technology itself is neutral, and what counts is how human beings put it to use. Guiding, adjusting, and rejecting improper use are all responsibilities that fall on humans, not machines.

The Geneva conference will be the next key point of observation. No one can guarantee at this point that UN member states will actually take those "concrete steps". But the Pope has made his position unambiguous: AI should be "disarmed", and this action can only be initiated by humans.