Critics of AI-generated art have found a powerful new ally: the Bishop of Rome, Primate of Italy, and Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church.
On Friday morning, Pope Leo XIV took to X to articulate the spiritual distinction between human-created art and machine-generated art, calling for the protection of human artistry against the encroachment of artificial intelligence.
“Servant of God” writes: “In the age of artificial intelligence, distinguishing between human art and works generated by machines has become particularly urgent. There is an ontological difference—predating even aesthetic distinctions—between art and works produced by machines through statistical calculations utilizing millions of images created by others. Algorithms lack the human spark.”
In an encyclical issued in May, Pope Leo XIV made a more detailed statement regarding artificial intelligence, emphasizing the importance of upholding human dignity in an increasingly automated world.
However, this has not deterred AI companies from lobbying the Pope. According to a recent report by The New York Times, the company Anthropic actively lobbied the Vatican to reconsider its stance on non-human consciousness—though apparently with little success.