Pope Leo XIV calls for strict AI limits, apologises for Church's historical role in slavery

Pope Leo XIV has called on world leaders to impose binding ethical controls on artificial intelligence development, warning that unchecked AI systems posed serious risks to human dignity and global security, while separately issuing a formal expression of remorse for the Roman Catholic Church's historical involvement in the transatlantic slave trade.

The pontiff's dual message, delivered in a major address to Church leaders and diplomats, carries particular resonance in sub-Saharan Africa, where the Catholic Church commands its largest and fastest-growing global congregation. In Kenya alone, Catholics number approximately seven million — roughly 14 percent of the population — making the Church a significant moral and civic institution whose statements carry genuine social weight.

On artificial intelligence, Pope Leo echoed concerns being raised within Kenya's own technology policy community. Nairobi has positioned itself as East Africa's leading technology hub, with its Silicon Savannah attracting substantial investment in fintech, agritech and AI-powered services. Civil society groups and regulators have nonetheless pressed for stronger frameworks governing algorithmic decision-making, surveillance tools and generative AI applications in healthcare, education and financial services.

The slavery apology was received with measured responses across African Catholic communities. For many Kenyan clergy and theologians, it represents a meaningful symbolic step — one long overdue — even as questions persist about what concrete institutional reforms or reparative commitments might follow such acknowledgments.

Church leaders in Nairobi responded cautiously, welcoming the remarks as an act of moral honesty while noting that symbolic gestures must be followed by structural change. The convergence of the two issues — historical injustice and emerging technological risk — in a single papal address underscored what many African commentators have argued for years: that the Church's credibility on future ethics depends substantially on its honesty about its past.