Time magazine included Pope Leo XIV in his 2025 list of the “Most influential people in artificial intelligence in the world”On Thursday, August 28, praising the pontiff’s approach to ethical concerns related to this emerging technology.
The magazine listed the 100 most influential people in artificial intelligence (AI) in four categories: leaders, innovatives, transformers and thinkers. According to Time, Leo XIV is among the 25 most influential thinkers in this field.
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In A profile published in the magazineAndrew Chow, Time technology correspondentsaid that Leo XIV chose his papal name, in part, for the need for the Church to address the ethical issues related to AI and wrote that the Holy Father “is already fulfilling his promise.”
When the Pontiff met with the Cardinal College two days after assuming the papacy, he said he took the name in honor of Leo XIII, who “faced the social issue in the context of the first major industrial revolution.”
Leo XIII, Pope from 1878 to 1903, published the encyclical Of the revolutionarywhich dealt with the needs of the working class in the midst of the industrial revolution. The text rejected both socialism and the unrestricted power of the market, opting for cooperation between competition interests, focused on the dignity of the human person.
The current Pope, Leo XIV, said he took the name due to the “developments of artificial intelligence”, which, they said “new challenges in the defense of human dignity, justice and work.”
Time’s profile stressed that the Vatican welcomed the annual conference on artificial intelligence, ethics and business governance in June, and said: “The Opening speech of Leo XIV stressed the potential of AI as force for good, particularly in medical care and scientific discoveries.”
“But the AI ’raises worrying questions about its possible repercussions on the opening of humanity to truth and beauty, in our particular ability to understand and elaborate reality,” he added, “said the profile, citing the Holy Father. “And he warned that technology could be misused for ‘selfish profits at the expense of others or, worse, to foster conflicts and aggressions.”
Among other personalities included by Time on the list are the founder of XAI, Elon Musk; the founder of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg; the executive director of Nvidia, Jensen Huang; Senator Marsha Blackburn and Senator Chris Murphy.
This is the third annual list published by Time on the most influential people in AI.
“We launched this list in 2023, after the publication of Chatgpt by OpenAI, the moment when many became aware of the potential of AI to compete with human abilities and overcome them,” wrote the editor in chief of Time, Sam Jacobsabout the publication of the list.
“Our goal was to show that the direction of AI will be determined not by machines, but by people: innovators, defenders, artists and all those who have interest in the future of this technology,” he added. “… this year’s list confirms our approach to people even more.”
Translated and adapted by the ACI Press team. Originally published in CNA.
Tyler Arnold
Tyler Arnold is a reporter of the National Catholic Register. He previously worked at The Center Square and has published in various media, including The Associated Press, National Review, The American Conservative and The Federalist.