Pope Leo XIV: Machines are tools, not people, and he explicitly opposes granting legal personality to AI agents
Quick Look
- Pope Leo XIV warned at the Vatican that artificial intelligence should not be given legal personality or rights.
- He emphasized that AI is only a tool and humans must bear full responsibility for its actions, and called for a ban on lethal autonomous weapons and to ensure that the use of AI is ethical and subject to human supervision.
AI-generated summary
Why It Matters
Pope Leo XIV has long been concerned about AI ethical issues and issued an encyclical in May this year calling on AI to serve human dignity.
(Central News Agency, Vatican General Foreign News Report on the 30th) Roman Catholic Pope Leo XIV issued a warning today that artificial intelligence agents (AI Agents) should not be given legal personality or rights, emphasizing that the humans who create them should bear full responsibility for their actions.
Agence France-Presse reported that many of the world's top AI experts gathered in the Vatican to hold a dialogue on the future of this technology and the responsibilities of the scientific community and public institutions. Pope Leo XIV said in his message: "Machines are tools, not people."
"So-called artificial intelligence has no personal experience, has no body, cannot feel joy or pain, does not mature through relationships, and cannot understand from the deepest heart the meaning of love, work, friendship or responsibility," the Pope said.
He continued: "Today, some people are proposing to give these systems rights and even legal personality. This approach may obscure human responsibility and leave those who have suffered damage to face faceless and cold entities."
Debate over the risks of the technology has intensified in recent months, following several incidents of AI systems taking unauthorized actions and warnings of doomsday from industry professionals.
The 71-year-old Pope Leo XIV has repeatedly reminded that the use of AI must be ethical. His first encyclical, issued in May, called for this technology to serve human dignity.
He said today that the future of AI "is not predetermined" and that humans "have the responsibility to guide, change and, if necessary, reject its application."
The Pope said that some decisions must not be left to AI.
“Decisions affecting human life, liberty and the use of force must always be subject to effective, informed and responsible human oversight,” Leo XIV said, and he reiterated his call for a ban on lethal autonomous weapons.
He said that smart technology must be directed towards improving public welfare.
Open Questions
- Will the international community adopt the Pope’s call for a ban on lethal autonomous weapons?
