Pope Leo issues AI warning
Global News Podcast
BBC
4.3 • 8.3K Ratings
🗓️ 25 May 2026
⏱️ 25 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In his first teaching document, Pope Leo warns AI risks accelerating war and threatens humanity. It was published at an event in the Vatican attended by AI experts including the co-founder of Anthropic. Also: Muslims begin annual Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca as Saudi city hits 42C; the “revolutionary” gene editing therapy that could lower bad cholesterol by up to 62% for life; a new species of tiny blue octopus found 1,800 metres beneath the Galapagos Islands off Ecuador; the Japanese businessman who transformed the 7-Eleven chain, Toshifumi Suzuki, dies aged 93; and British pensioner, Harry Heasman, becomes world's oldest wing walker.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:05.6 | You're listening to the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:11.2 | Hello, I'm Oliver Conway. We're recording this at 16 hours GMT on Monday the 25th of May. |
| 0:17.7 | Pope Leo warns that artificial intelligence poses a potentially existential risk to humanity. |
| 0:24.2 | The World Health Organization Chief says a delay in detecting Ebola means responders are now playing |
| 0:29.7 | catch-up. And Saudi Arabia says Hajj Pilgrims will be safe despite the war in Iran. |
| 0:38.1 | Also in the podcast? |
| 0:39.7 | The idea here is that you could do one treatment once in your life |
| 0:42.5 | and then hopefully the rest of your time, |
| 0:44.3 | you won't have to worry about high cholesterol causing heart disease. |
| 0:47.6 | Could a one-off treatment spell the end of high cholesterol? |
| 0:56.5 | The Pope has sounded a warning about the dangers of artificial intelligence, saying it could |
| 1:01.8 | pose a potentially existential risk to humanity, and calling for more to be done to reduce |
| 1:07.7 | its impact on the environment. |
| 1:09.9 | In his first encyclical, or document, entitled Magnifica Humanitas, |
| 1:15.8 | Leo said that AI shouldn't be allowed to concentrate power in the hands of just a few people, |
| 1:21.6 | nor used for military purposes. |
| 1:24.2 | Artificial intelligence needs to be disarmed. The word is strong, I know, but deliberately |
| 1:32.6 | chosen because this moment needs words capable of attracting attention, awakening consciences, |
| 1:39.9 | and indicating paths forward for humanity. |
| 1:47.5 | The pontiff also said that the idea of a just war, |
| 1:50.0 | which has recently been used by the Trump administration to justify its attacks on Iran, was outdated. |
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