The Vatican has laid a moral blueprint for the technology, with Pope Leo maintaining that 'algorithms lack the spark of humanity'

Pope Leo's "Magnifica humanitas" encyclical argues that AI cannot possess genuine consciousness.

The artificial-intelligence debate has made it to the Vatican, with none other than Pope Leo weighing in on the technology.

In a Friday post on X, Pope Leo took a definitive stance separating human capabilities from those of AI. He declared an "ontological difference" between art made by AI and humans - meaning that the two are fundamentally different by nature.

"Algorithms lack the spark of humanity," he wrote. "For this reason, the Church wishes to renew an alliance with artists and cultural institutions to safeguard our humanity."

It's not the first time that the pope has spoken out about the relationship between AI and humanity. In May, Pope Leo issued an encyclical titled "Magnifica humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence," in which he affirmed the dignity and personhood of human beings, warning that automated systems must never replace human moral agency or spiritual judgment.

Pope Leo's statements come amid a growing debate that has followed the AI industry as the technology improves. With AI models capable of producing code, solving complex math problems and generating visual art at a pace no human can match, some in the industry have wondered if these systems are approaching consciousness or sentience. AI researchers have warned that the technology could lead to human extinction, adding urgency to both policy and philosophical debates.

The pope has taken a stance against AI consciousness that puts the Catholic Church at odds with the AI company Anthropic, which has developed a constitution dubbed the "Soul Doc" to serve as a moral guide for its Claude large language models.

In "Magnifica humanitas," Pope Leo maintained that consciousness requires a physical body, a soul and authentic human lived experience - qualities unattainable to AI models. He characterized AI capabilities as statistical computations and warned that assigning consciousness to AI erodes human dignity.

Anthropic has amplified the theological aspects of this debate. Co-founder Chris Olah reached out to religious leaders last fall to discuss what the company calls "moral formation" of AI, or how human morality could apply to AI, according to a New York Times report earlier this week. Anthropic showed the religious leaders what the company called "emotional vectors," or specific artificial neural-network prompts designed to simulate traits like love, fear and anger. Pope Leo was not present at these discussions.

The Vatican invited Anthropic to a launch event for Pope Leo's encyclical, citing the company's ethics following its face-off with the U.S. Defense Department, according to the report. Olah was disturbed after reading a copy of "Magnifica humanitas" and suggested pulling Anthropic out of the event, although he ultimately attended.

Anthropic did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

-Christine Ji