Pope Leo XIV Opens Paris Visit With Warning on AI and Human Dignity

Pope Leo XIV opened his visit to France on Friday with a broad warning about the direction of scientific and technological progress, telling an audience at the Élysée Palace that humanity risks losing itself in a "paradise of machines" that shape and constrain everyday life.

Speaking alongside French President Emmanuel Macron and assembled diplomats, the pontiff said he had made artificial intelligence the focus of his first encyclical precisely to restore the human person to the centre of reflection. He called for education in ethical discernment, describing the ability to judge what is morally good as essential to recognising the good that allows people to flourish, with unconditional respect for their inner freedom and dignity.

Leo also questioned the expectation that science can remove or ease all suffering, saying such thinking carries the risk of self-delusion. When science and technology are not guided by conscience, he said, they may offer immediate answers that appear to satisfy people's wishes and pain while in fact diverting them from the greater good they seek.

The pope expressed concern about trends in society that he said risk turning science and technology into profit-driven pursuits, pointing to genetic manipulation, surrogacy, the trade in human organs and the option of arranging one's own death. Mutual respect and the protection of every human life, he said, are responsibilities shared by all.

Macron, in his remarks, said France stands on the side of peace, effective multilateralism, respect for international law and the United Nations Charter, without double standards and with coherence and constancy, because every life has equal value and all peoples must be defended.

Leo arrived in Paris earlier on Friday, beginning four days in a country where the Catholic Church has seen its influence on ethical questions diminish under a strict constitutional approach to secularism. Church bells rang across France as his charter flight landed at Orly airport, and organisers expect as many as a million people to turn out to see him — a level of interest that has surprised observers, given that this is the first official state visit by a pope in 18 years.

Later on Friday, the pope was scheduled to visit UNESCO headquarters, celebrate vespers at the newly reopened Notre-Dame cathedral and preside over a large youth vigil at the Paris stadium.