Pope Leo calls for alliance to protect human art in AI era

Pope Leo XIV has called for closer cooperation between the Catholic Church, artists and cultural institutions to protect human creativity amid the rapid rise of artificial intelligence.

Speaking to artists and curators on 2 October, the pope said it has become increasingly important to distinguish human-made art from content generated by machines.

“In this age of artificial intelligence, in which we urgently need to distinguish human art from what is produced by machines,” Leo said.

“There is an ontological difference — even before an aesthetic one — between art and what a machine can generate through statistical calculation based on millions of images created by others,” he added.

The pope said algorithms lack the “spark of the human,” adding that authentic culture and art preserve that quality.

“For all these reasons, the Church wishes to renew an alliance with artists and cultural institutions; an alliance for safeguarding what is human,” Leo said.

The remarks echo themes in Leo’s first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, issued in May, which focuses on safeguarding human dignity in the age of artificial intelligence. The document calls for AI to remain under human responsibility and directed toward the common good.