Pope condemns use of AI to fuel ‘polarisation, conflict, fear and violence’

Pope Leo XIV on Friday warned against the use of AI to fan “polarisation, conflict, fear and violence” and criticised the “environmental devastation” caused by the extraction of rare earths to fuel the digital boom.

“The challenge posed by these systems is greater than it appears: it is not just about the use of new technologies, but about the gradual replacement of reality by its simulation,” he said in a speech at the Catholic University of Central Africa in Yaounde, Cameroon.

“In this way, polarisation, conflict, fear and violence spread. What is at stake is not merely the risk of error, but a transformation in our very relationship with truth.”

It marks the pontiff’s latest outspoken intervention on a landmark 11-day tour of Africa that has seen him abandon his previous restraint to deliver impassioned pleas for world peace — and tussle with fellow American Donald Trump, after the US president lashed out at him for calling for an end to the war in the Middle East.

While Leo has called for caution on AI several times since his election in May 2025, his latest warning about the technology comes as the US president faces increasing scrutiny over his use of AI.

After the pope criticised the US-Israeli war with Iran, Trump on Sunday posted an AI-generated image portraying himself as a saint with a glowing halo. The image was taken down on Monday.

Leo conceded that “Christians, and especially young African Catholics, must not be afraid of new things”.

But the continent “also knows the darker side of the environmental and social devastation caused by the relentless pursuit of raw materials and rare earths”, he added.

The AI boom is largely reliant on the extraction of cobalt needed to run energy-hungry data servers, with Africa often bearing the environmental, social and human cost of mining.

Notably, competition for the Democratic Republic of Congo’s rich veins of cobalt, copper, lithium and coltan has fuelled a spiral of violence in the mineral-rich east that has lasted three decades.

According to the US Geological Survey, the country supplied more than three-quarters of the world’s cobalt production in 2024.

“Africa needs to be freed from the scourge of corruption,” Leo said, taking aim at a graft-riddled mining industry where foreign powers — China foremost among them — reap the riches of the continent’s wealth while the local populations suffer.