Peter Thiel calls Pope Leo XIV a 'useful idiot' for the Chinese Communist Party over his AI encyclical
In an interview with Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner (MD Meets podcast, released Sept 25, 2026, when Thiel received the Axel Springer Award in Berlin), Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel said Pope Leo XIV's call for AI regulation in Magnifica Humanitas was "working for the Communist party" and that the Pope was "at least acting as a useful idiot for the CCP". On Oct 3 Palantir's Eliano Younes mocked the Pope's AI-art remarks with a "did someone say… ontological?" post (~147K views), showing a split in Silicon Valley over the Pope.
Key facts
- Thiel: 'The Communist Party of China is not going to listen to the pope. There's a chance people in the U.S. will. And so in effect, the Pope's encyclical was working for the Communist party'
- Thiel: 'I'm not saying he was an agent of the communists, but he was at least acting as a useful idiot for the CCP'; he added that the AI backlash is 'mainly what we're doing to ourselves'
- Reach: the @remarks clip post ('Peter Thiel says Pope Leo XIV was a useful idiot for China', Sept 24, 23:21 UTC) had ~4.1M views by Oct 4 (fxtwitter)
- Thiel had already criticised the Pope in July 2026 in Colorado (TNW); the Vatican did not comment to Politico or Business Insider
- Oct 3, 2026 (01:31 UTC): Eliano Younes, Palantir's head of strategic engagement, posted an image of the Pope in a Palantir 'ontology' hoodie captioned 'did someone say… ontological?', mocking the Pope's Oct 2 'ontological difference' remark on AI art; ~147K views and ~650 likes by Oct 4 (fxtwitter)
- Letters from Leo (Oct 3) listed tech figures who defended the Pope (incl. a16z's Katherine Boyle, Google DeepMind's Jon Barron) and critics (incl. Paul Graham, Alex Tabarrok); these reactions were not checked individually
What happened
Thiel, who has lectured on the Antichrist and opposes AI regulation, said in Berlin that the encyclical would only restrain the US because China will ignore it. A week later a Palantir executive's joke post about the Pope's AI-art speech spread widely.
Why it matters
It is the sharpest attack by a major tech investor on the Vatican's AI stance, and it shows the "accelerate vs. regulate" divide being argued in religious terms. The Pope's critics and defenders in tech line up roughly with the regulation debate.
Changelog
- 2026-10-04: created (sweep 2026-10-04: Letters from Leo story on the Palantir executive; Thiel's Sept 25 remark was missing)
People
Related posts (2)
- Eliano A Younes original ↗ Eliano A Younes @eliano · x · 2026-10-03
Cited as a source by: 2026-09-25-thiel-pope-leo-useful-idiot-ccp, 2026-10-02-pope-leo-ai-art-spark-of-humanity - Remarks original ↗ Remarks @remarks · x · 2026-09-24
Cited as a source by: 2026-09-25-thiel-pope-leo-useful-idiot-ccp
Related events
- Pope Leo XIV's first encyclical, "Magnifica Humanitas", is devoted to AI ★★★
- Pope Leo XIV makes AI the theme of addresses to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences (Sept 24) and UNESCO in Paris (Sept 25) ★★
- Pope Leo XIV on AI art: 'Algorithms lack the spark of humanity' ★★★
- Pope Leo XIV says AI doom concerns are not 'fake news' and rebukes Nvidia's Jensen Huang for opposing regulation ★★★
- NYT: Anthropic's summits with religious leaders on Claude's possible consciousness, and Chris Olah's private lobbying of the Vatican ★★★★
Sources (5)
- pressTNW: Peter Thiel says Pope Leo's call to regulate AI helps China
- pressUnHerd: Does Peter Thiel think Pope Leo is the Antichrist?
- pressLetters from Leo: Palantir executive mocks Pope Leo XIV as Silicon Valley splits over him (Oct 3)
- discussionEliano Younes on X: 'did someone say… ontological?'
- discussionRemarks on X: clip of Thiel's 'useful idiot for China' comment
id: 2026-09-25-thiel-pope-leo-useful-idiot-ccp · updated 2026-10-04 · open in the interactive timeline