The pope has weighed in on AI art, and the AI guys are not amused. In his Magnifica Humanitas, Pope Francis said there is an “ontological difference” between art made by humans and art made by machines.
“So-called artificial intelligences do not undergo experiences, do not possess a body, do not feel joy or pain, do not mature through relationships and do not know from within what love, work, friendship or responsibility mean.”
That is the core of the argument. The pope is saying that a machine cannot have a soul, cannot grow, and cannot feel. It is a blunt rejection of the idea that AI could ever be treated as a person.
Anthropic Lobbied the Pope’s Advisers
The beef did not start with this letter. Back in May, Anthropic lobbied the pope’s advisers “to take the prospect of AI model consciousness seriously,” according to a New York Times report published this week.
The lobbying did not work. The pope remained unmoved.
Dean Ball Criticized the Letter
Dean Ball, the former White House technology adviser who now runs strategic futures at OpenAI, criticized the pope’s letter at the time. He said it “puts the Church into the awkward role of the European technocratic regulatory advocate.”
That is a sharp critique. Ball is arguing that the church is stepping into a policy role it is not suited for.
The Latest Message From X
The pope has now posted a new anti-slop message on X, the platform ruled as it is by the “dunce king of tech” and his followers. The letter repeats the same basic argument, with a sharper focus on the distinction between human art and machine art.
“The Church wishes to renew an alliance with artists and cultural institutions to safeguard our humanity.”
The letter also makes a direct appeal to artists and cultural institutions to ally with the church against AI-generated content. That is a political move, not just a theological one.
Support on X
Even on X, there is a lot of support for the pope’s stance. But there are also AI evangelists pushing back.
One response on Bluesky, a rival social network, asked the pope a simple question: “What about the Minions?”
A Farce Fit for Cyberpunk Novels
The clash between the pope and the AI guys is a strange one. The pope is defending the idea that humans are special. The AI guys are building machines that can do things humans cannot.
It is a debate that feels ripped from a ’90s cyberpunk comedy novel. The paper once assumed that satire about mad techno-cultists and lawless megacorps would show up in a more buttoned-up, realistic form. Reality has proved otherwise.
A tangentially related case: Palmer Luckey, the inventor of the first decent consumer VR headset, is now a weapons mogul with a personal UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter. Deus Ex bosses are real, and they wear Hawaiian shirts.
Where This Goes
The battle lines are drawn between powerful AI interests and the Catholic church. The next Great Schism might be over whether Claude is a real person.
The pope has made his position clear. The AI guys will keep building.
Source material: “AI guys beefing with the pope: A brief recap,” PC Gamer.
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