Pope Leo XIV opened his four-day visit to France on Friday with a warning aimed squarely at the age of artificial intelligence: technological progress, he argued, cannot be allowed to redefine the value of human life.

After arriving in Paris from Rome, Leo addressed President Emmanuel Macron and diplomats at the Élysée Palace. Against the backdrop of wars in Europe and the Middle East, he also rejected nuclear deterrence as “mistaken,” saying it was feeding a fresh arms race. “Peace is not a balance of power; rather, it is built day by day through dialogue and justice,” he said.¹

His sharpest concern, however, was the risk of surrendering moral judgment to machines. France, he said, should draw on its Christian roots and human-rights tradition as it confronts scientific advances. “If we are to avoid losing our humanity amid a ‘paradise of machines’ invading and conditioning our daily lives, there is an urgent need for education in ethical discernment,” Leo said.¹

The appeal carries particular weight in a country where secularism has constrained the Church’s influence over ethical debates, including abortion and assisted dying. Macron, whose approval ratings are near record lows with seven months left in office, welcomed the pope’s visit as a source of hope and stressed France’s commitment to peace, multilateralism and equal human worth.¹

Later at UNESCO, Leo widened the case against unchecked AI, warning that the technology can amplify misinformation. “Without truth, language becomes subject to the logic of violence and to the arbitrary will of the powerful,” he said.²

Leo’s position is not a rejection of AI itself. On the flight to Paris, he said some technology companies appeared open to ensuring AI does not “displace or ultimately destroy humanity,” but instead remains “a tool for human beings.”¹ The contest he describes is therefore not machines versus people, but whether governments and developers can impose human purposes on a technology racing ahead of public rules.