Vance ‘looking forward to reading’ Pope Leo’s AI encyclical

WASHINGTON (OSV News) — Vice President JD Vance said May 19 during a press briefing at the White House that he is “looking forward to reading” Pope Leo XIV’s upcoming first encyclical, “Magnifica Humanitas,” addressing artificial intelligence.

“I think when the pope issues an encyclical on artificial intelligence, it’s going to have some influence,” Vance said in response to a question on the topic, adding, “I, of course, don’t know how much influence. I don’t know exactly what it’s going to say, but I think when the leader of the world’s largest Christian denomination speaks on an issue like that, it’s certainly going to have some influence.”

The title of the encyclical is Latin for “Magnificent Humanity,” and it will address artificial intelligence and human dignity, the Vatican has announced. It will be published May 25.

Vance said he is sure the encyclical will “contain a lot of insights, some of which I’ll probably agree with, some of which I may not, but I think that it’s going to be a very, very important document.”

In response to a related question on whether the government should create a new mandatory review process for new AI models, Vance argued that President Donald Trump “wants us to be pro-innovation” on AI.

“He wants us to win the AI race against all other countries in the world,” Vance said. “He recognizes that AI is going to be an important tool, not just for our economy, but for our military, and so he wants to ensure that we are winning that particular race. We also want to make sure that we’re protecting people, we’re protecting people’s data, we’re protecting people’s privacy.”

But Vance also acknowledged the technology “does have some downsides.”

“We’re trying to balance that safety against innovation, and we think that we’ve got the right balance here in the Trump administration, but something we’re going to have to keep on working on, because that’s just the nature of these technologies, is they certainly change,” he said.

Pope Leo has consistently expressed interest in the issue of artificial intelligence and the dignity of work since the first days of his pontificate, telling the College of Cardinals shortly after his election in May 2025 that he took his papal name partly in honor of Pope Leo XIII, whose landmark encyclical “Rerum Novarum” has shaped the Church’s social teaching for more than a century.

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