<\/p>\n
ROME (AP) \u2014 Pope Leo XIV and the co-founder of artificial intelligence company Anthropic will launch the pontiff\u2019s first encyclical<\/a> on May 25, a document on the care of human dignity in the era of AI, the Vatican said Monday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The presence of Anthropic’s Christopher Olah at the Vatican is significant, and suggests that the U.S. pope’s position on AI will become a new flashpoint with the Trump administration.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In February, the Trump administration ordered all U.S. agencies to stop using<\/a> Anthropic\u2019s artificial intelligence technology and imposed other major penalties for refusing to allow the U.S. military unrestricted use of its AI technology. Anthropic is currently suing the administration<\/a>, which it has accused of retaliating against it illegally because of its attempt to impose limits on how its AI technology can be deployed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Leo, who has made AI a priority of his young pontificate, is greatly concerned about AI in warfare and has called for monitoring of how the technology is used.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The pope\u2019s presence at the launch of the document, Magnifica Humanitas (Magnificent Humanity) is also significant, since such presentations are usually conducted in the Vatican press room with a few selected officials and invited guests who answer reporters questions about the document.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n This time, the Vatican is bringing out an all-star cast for a formal launch in the main Vatican auditorium: Two of its top cardinals, doctrine chief Cardinal V\u00edctor Manuel Fern\u00e1ndez and development chief Cardinal Michael Czerny, will be the main presenters. Olah will be among the lay speakers, along with theologians Anna Rowlands and Leocadie Lushombo.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, will offer a conclusion and Leo will make a speech and provide a final blessing, the Vatican said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Leo signed the document May 15, 135 years to the day after his namesake, Pope Leo XIII, signed his most important encyclical, \u201cRerum Novarum,\u201d or Of New Things. That document addressed workers\u2019 rights, the limits of capitalism, and the obligations that states and employers owed workers as the Industrial Revolution was underway.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n It became the foundation of modern Catholic social thought, and the current pope has already cited it in relation to the AI revolution<\/a>, which he believes poses the same existential questions that the Industrial Revolution posed over a century ago. The new encyclical is expected to place the AI question in the context of the church\u2019s social teaching, which also covers issues such as labor, justice and peace.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n