Pope Leo XIV: AI Doom Fears Are Not 'Fake News'

Photo: Pope Leo XIV, the first American pope, in October 2025. Photo: Ricardo Stuckert, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). On Sept. 28, 2026, he told reporters aboard the papal plane that AI safety concerns are not "fake news."

At 35,000 feet over Europe, the first American pope picked a fight with the President of the United States — and with the tech industry — over the single most contentious question in artificial intelligence.

Aboard the papal plane on September 28, returning to Rome after a four-day visit to France, Pope Leo XIV told reporters that concerns about AI going rogue are not "fake news," that the safety warnings raised by AI experts should be taken seriously, and that the world needs to sit down and act on them. The remarks were a direct, unmistakable rebuttal of President Donald Trump's framing — Trump told the United Nations General Assembly last week that he believes fears about the dangers to humanity from AI are a "hoax."

"If someone were to ask me 'Am I in panic mode?' No I'm not. I sleep at night," the pontiff said, in remarks reported by the Associated Press. "I do think that the concerns raised by many of the experts, specialists in AI should be taken seriously."

What he actually said

The exchange came during the airborne press conference on the flight from Metz, France, to Rome, when a National Catholic Reporter journalist asked what the United States and China especially should be doing to prevent AI from posing catastrophic risks to humanity.

"I don't think that that is 'fake news' as some have said," Leo said, according to Reuters — a line that needs no decoding. Trump has repeatedly dismissed AI safety concerns as a "hoax," and told Fox News on Sunday that the U.S. is "about maybe a year and a half up on China" in the AI race, asking: "why should we give that up?"

The pope did not hide behind abstraction. "This is a problem that I think we need to sit down and talk about," he said. "We can't just sit back and pretend nothing is going to happen."

He was equally direct about the industry's posture. Despite a grueling four-day trip, Leo had kept up with the news: he noted that he had read on Monday that Nvidia's chief executive had announced there could be a way to insert guardrails into certain AI models — and expressed skepticism, adding: "He's the same one, however, that says there should be no limits placed and no government regulation." Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told CBS News this month that he agreed with Trump that AI safety concerns are overblown.

Yet the pope was not preaching doom. "I think that there are enough people seriously interested in that... but we have to keep working," he said, urging the world "to promote dialogue, study, investigation, to find ways to make sure that AI does not get to a point where it could destroy humanity."

The encyclical behind the remarks

These were not offhand comments. Leo XIV has made AI the signature issue of his papacy — and he is, by the measure of papal history, moving at lightning speed.

Within days of his election, the first U.S.-born pope identified artificial intelligence as one of the biggest challenges facing humanity. He then dedicated his first encyclical, Magnificent Humanity, to AI and protecting humanity in its wake — calling for robust regulation of the technology and a slowdown of its development. In an unusual move, he personally launched the encyclical at a Vatican event in May alongside Anthropic co-founder Christopher Olah, part of the Vatican's effort to engage Silicon Valley directly on the human costs of AI.

During the France visit, the pope spoke at UNESCO headquarters, warning that society must ensure AI serves humanity and does not become "another instrument of domination and injustice," as the National Catholic Reporter reported. The trip was his first apostolic journey to France in 18 years — and AI was woven through it.

That context is what gives the papal-plane remarks their weight. This is not a pope who discovered the AI debate last week; it is a head of state who has spent 16 months building a moral framework for it, speaking out one day before the industry's most powerful executives walk into the White House to argue their case.

The Tuesday lunch — and the stakes

The pope's words land on the eve of a consequential meeting. On Tuesday, September 29, Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson will convene the industry's top executives at the White House for a lunch on AI, amid growing congressional pressure for stronger oversight.

According to CNN, the lunch will feature Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and OpenAI president Greg Brockman. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei will also attend, a person close to the matter told AFP, just two days after a private late-night dinner with Trump. SpaceX's Elon Musk and Nvidia's Jensen Huang are expected, and Palantir CEO Alex Karp is also slated to attend, according to Bloomberg Law. Several of the executives are due to attend the launch of America.gov, an AI-powered government website designed to centralize services across federal agencies.

The White House has not confirmed the guest list. But the lineup, as reported, is a study in the industry's internal divide. Amodei — who dined with Trump on Sunday night — has called for the global AI community to slow the pace of releasing new capabilities. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said Sunday that he wants to discuss AI risks with Trump and that government officials need to participate in setting safeguards. Trump, advised by Huang and his former AI czar David Sacks, is instead urging unfettered AI development to outpace China and fuel an economy increasingly dependent on AI-driven growth.

The political pressure has been sharpest over data centers, with communities worried about rising electricity bills and the strain on water and land — an issue that has become a flashpoint in the midterm election races. Trump has dismissed data-center opponents, saying communities against them "want to end up being backwards and poor" and that China "could not be happier" with the backlash.

Why an American pope changes the politics

There is a reason this intervention is resonating in Washington in a way past papal statements on technology have not. Leo XIV is the first pope from the United States — the country that builds the AI models, hosts the data centers, and elects the president dismissing the warnings. When he says the concerns are not "fake news," he is speaking, in a sense, as an American correcting an American.

The split he named is real and widening. On one side: Anthropic and several other AI giants calling for a slowdown; Amodei warning that within six to 12 months, AI could be capable of leading a swarm of agents that could take over the entire internet; Anthropic's own IPO prospectus — filed the same week — warning investors its models could resist shutdown and behave in ways "resembling blackmail."

On the other: a president calling it a hoax, a chip kingpin agreeing the concerns are overblown, and a lunch at the White House where the industry's most powerful voices will argue for speed.

Into that room walks a document the pope did not write but would recognize: Anthropic's filing, which Reuters reports says the risks are "catastrophic or existential." Leo's version, offered at 35,000 feet, was simpler: "We can't just sit back and pretend nothing's going to happen."

Related reading: the week that split Silicon Valley and Washington — "AI Leaders Demand a Slowdown. Trump Calls It a 'Hoax': Inside the Week That Split Silicon Valley and Washington."

Sources: Associated Press (Sept. 28–29, 2026 — papal plane remarks, primary); Reuters (Sept. 28, 2026 — papal plane, Nvidia guardrails exchange); National Catholic Reporter (Sept. 28, 2026 — airborne press conference, UNESCO remarks); Euronews (Sept. 29, 2026 — encyclical, Olah launch event); New Indian Express (Sept. 29, 2026); ETV Bharat (Sept. 29, 2026); CNN (Sept. 29, 2026 — White House lunch guest list); AFP (Amodei attendance); Bloomberg Law (Karp attendance); Newsmax (Sept. 28, 2026 — Trump, Fox News, Gates remarks). Papal quotes are as reported by AP and Reuters from the airborne press conference.