Pope Leo XIV says AI doom concerns are not 'fake news' and rebukes Nvidia's Jensen Huang for opposing regulation
On Sept 28, 2026, at a press conference on his flight back to Rome from a four-day trip to France, Pope Leo XIV said experts' warnings that AI could threaten humanity "should be taken seriously" and are not "fake news, as some have said". He singled out Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who had announced AI guardrails but is "the same one, however, that says there should be no limits placed and no government regulation". The remarks came a day before the White House AI lunch, which Huang attended.
Key facts
- Occasion: in-flight press conference returning from France, Sept 28, 2026 (Reuters, America Magazine)
- Quote: 'I do think that the concerns raised by many of the experts, specialists in AI, should be taken seriously. I don't think that that is fake news, as some have said.'
- On Huang: he had read that Nvidia's head announced a way to insert guardrails into AI models, but 'He's the same one, however, that says there should be no limits placed and no government regulation.'
- The Pope said he is not 'in panic mode' but 'we can't just sit back and pretend that nothing is going to happen'; he called for AI experts, political leaders and social organizations to work together so AI 'does not get to a point where it could destroy humanity' (America Magazine)
- Context: Huang told CBS News in September that he agreed with Trump that AI safety concerns were overblown; Trump told the UN General Assembly the week before that AI fears were a 'hoax' (Reuters, Axios)
- Nvidia had just launched an open safety platform for agents (Sept 28), the guardrails announcement the Pope appeared to refer to (TNW)
What happened
Asked about AI on the papal plane, Leo XIV defended the experts warning of catastrophic risk and criticized Huang by name, pointing to a contradiction between Nvidia's safety tooling and its opposition to government rules.
Why it matters
Leo XIV made AI the theme of his first encyclical (Magnifica Humanitas, May 2026). Here he sides openly with the "take the risk seriously" camp against the White House and Nvidia, the day before the White House lunch where the industry signed only voluntary commitments.
Changelog
- 2026-09-29: created
Related events
- Pope Leo XIV's first encyclical, "Magnifica Humanitas", is devoted to AI ★★★
- Trump at the UN General Assembly 'totally rejects' any global scheme to control AI and renames it 'super intelligence' ★★★★
- NVIDIA launches the Open Agent Safety Platform (OpenShell + Sentry) with 100+ partners; Perplexity publishes SPACE breakout tests ★★★
- Trump hosts AI CEOs at the White House; they sign a voluntary 'morally binding' Accord on Superintelligence, and Trump rejects new federal AI rules ★★★★
- NYT: Chris Olah and about 20 religious and philosophical leaders describe Anthropic's summits on Claude's morality and possible consciousness ★★★
Sources (7)
- pressFinancial Times: Pope Leo rebukes Jensen Huang over AI risks
- pressReuters via US News: Pope Leo says concerns about AI doom are not 'fake news'
- pressAmerica Magazine: Pope Leo is not 'in panic mode' about an A.I. catastrophe, but 'we can't just sit back'
- pressAxios: Pope Leo rejects AI 'fake news' claims after Trump calls fears a 'hoax'
- pressAl Jazeera: Pope Leo says AI risk concerns not 'fake news'
- pressNational Catholic Reporter: Pope Leo says alarm over AI not 'fake news,' but remains optimistic
- pressTNW: Pope Leo says AI safety fears are not 'fake news', criticises Jensen Huang
id: 2026-09-28-pope-leo-rebukes-huang-ai-risk · updated 2026-09-29 · open in the interactive timeline