Pope Leo XIV has released a significant manifesto cautioning against the societal dangers posed by emerging technologies – particularly highlighting the battlefield applications and their connection to “slavery”.

Issued on May 15, the document appears 145 years after an earlier Pope Leo issued his own caution regarding the onset of the industrial revolution in the 19th century.

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In his encyclical – a formal statement expressing the stance of the Catholic Church to its 1.4 billion adherents – Pope Leo XIV condemned the prevailing “culture of power” fueling the AI competition, especially in crafting increasingly advanced forms of remote warfare.

But is there any solution to mitigate the consequences of this major 21st-century technological leap? Our correspondent Angela Skujins provides insight.