Pope Leo XIV may have ushered in a new papacy, but his choice of name and first major statements suggest he is looking backward—to Pope Leo XIII—and forward to a possible future upheaval on par with the Industrial Revolution.
And what’s fueling this disruption? Artificial intelligence.
As Catholic commentator Brian Holdsworth recently explained, the newly elected pope “has stated that the reason he took that name was because he is anticipating a similar massive disruption coming our way that could dramatically shape our way of life, our political, economic, social and moral order.”
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Holdsworth likened the moment to the 19th-century societal shift that prompted Leo XIII to pen Rerum Novarum, the Catholic Church’s foundational document on social teaching. That encyclical was a moral response to the industrial capitalist upheaval and called for protections for the working class, including “just wages, reasonable rest and humane working conditions.”
Pope Leo XIV’s concern today is not machinery or steam engines—it’s machine learning and automation.
“He thinks that AI is going to have a similar effect to the industrial revolution, one that has the potential to completely reshape our way of life so dramatically that it will be unrecognizable to the past,” Holdsworth said.
According to Holdsworth, this isn’t just speculation—it’s a warning grounded in credible fears from those within the tech elite. He cited a conversation shared by investor Paul Tudor Jones, who attended a high-level AI forum.
“He said that they all admitted that the competitive dynamic between the various tech companies and the geopolitical rivals of the United States like Russia and China was so intense that nobody is taking a step back and evaluating the question of the ethical implications,” Holdsworth reported.
The consequences of that race could be catastrophic. “He then said that he believes it will take a catastrophe, something like a 100 million deaths before we learn our lesson about this,” Holdsworth quoted Jones as saying.
Even more sobering, when forum participants were asked to agree or disagree with the proposition that there is a “10% chance in the next 20 years that AI will contribute to the death of 50% of humanity,” Holdsworth noted, “all four modelers, the heads of these leading AI companies said they agree with that statement.”
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Pope Leo XIV’s implied call for a new Rerum Novarum, a spiritual and moral framework to confront AI, may prove prophetic, or even providential.
“For my part, I don’t think some sound moral and spiritual diagnosis and prescription can come soon enough,” Holdsworth said. “And for the rest of us, I think we just need to be preparing ourselves for whatever comes next.”
James Lasher is staff writer for Charisma Media.
