Pope Leo XIV on Artificial Intelligence: Supporting the Next Generation

During his speech at the participants who attended the event "Artificial Intelligence and Care for Our Common Home", on Friday, December 5, 2025, Pope Leo XIV said that we must support and aid "the next generation to be when they grow up as adults" with their connection with artificial intelligence and new technology.

Data, Meaning, and the Questions That Matter

Pope Francis has said that simply because we have large quantities of data provided through digital technologies & can access this data, does not mean we can extract meaning from it. The Pope believes we must reflect on meaningful questions about our existence & purpose & explore what these questions mean in terms of human resources & the economy, too many modern-day models of how to run society ignore these questions or treat them as irrelevant.

His claim was that “society's welfare” depends on the development of young people's capacity for developing their talents and rising to the challenges of their generation while also being willing to share those talents with others in a generous manner and with an open heart.

A Conference on AI's Impact on Everyday Life

On Friday afternoon there will be a conference sponsored by the Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice Foundation and the Strategic Alliance of Catholic Research Universities (SACRU). The purpose of this conference is to present a report that will examine the effects that artificial intelligence (AI) has on three areas of our everyday lives (industrial, financial, educational) and communication.

The Advancement of AI Should Be a Collective Endeavor

Pope Leo encouraged people in attendance to help youth make decisions based on both their own brains and utilize new technology during in their search for what they believe to be the right decision." "As I said, the Pope believes we all want to excel beyond and/or be different than people we previously either respected or witnessed excellence in" and that we have reached a crossroads where we must define success in new ways than we have in the past.

He stated that we as adults have a responsibility to help our young generation develop their confidence in mankind's ability to create a better world for ourselves by developing the necessary tools to achieve our goals (i.e., new technologies, including Artificial Intelligence) than look at it as something that is simply going to happen.

He stated that: “For the success of our global community, we need coordinated efforts by Political, Institutional and Business as well as Financial, Educational, and Citizen and Religious Community to work on these efforts together." "It is important that everybody involved in these different sectors demonstrate their commitment toward our mutual responsibility to one another." "We must emphasize our shared commitment first, above all other interests or profit motives, while this commitment continues to become concentrated in fewer people."

The Pope emphasized the need for strong participation as an important factor in achieving these goals and expressed his gratitude to all the participants for contributing to these goals by their participation." Humans cooperate with one another and are participating as equal members of a teamwork-based group in creating items and services.

How AI Is Reshaping Critical Thinking and Society

Pope Leo has said that artificial intelligence is quickly and fundamentally changing our society. There are many ways in which we have changed how we live from day-to-day, and some of the most drastic differences are due to AI's effects on our critical thinking, ability to distinguish between different things, ability to learn, and ability to interact with others.

The author highlights important questions about how such technologies can affect society. "What steps do we need to take in relation to Artificial Intelligence so that they can support improved community welfare rather than transferring wealth and power from one small group to another?"

"AI now has a higher valuation than any other object on earth," he said before following up with a question. "How does one define being a person in this time in our history?" Pope Leo also expressed a need for us all to "take a moment to think about the freedom and inner life our children and youth are living through and how much technology may or may not have an effect on their development from both the cognitive and neurological perspectives."

Human Beings as Collaborators in Creation

He asserted that "human beings are summoned to be collaborators in the process of creation, rather than merely passive recipients of content produced by artificial technology.

It’s important to note that while AI has greatly increased what is possible for artists, it also brings up some serious questions about how our relationships with truth and beauty, wonder, and our ability to reflect on those experiences will change as a result of the use of AI. As he says: “In order to establish a proper framework for minimizing potential negative consequences resulting from the use of artificial intelligence, it is essential that we identify and preserve the characteristics distinguishing human beings from one another, as well as those necessary to facilitate their entire development.”