Pope vs. AI: The Beef Over Machine Consciousness Heats Up

Did you ever think you'd see the Pope beefing with AI bros? Well, here we are. For a while now, the Bishop of Rome—and yes, a Chicago White Sox fan—has been trading philosophical blows with the tech world over whether chatbots and image generators align with the will of the Lord. The latest flashpoint? A newly revealed exchange where Anthropic lobbied the Pope's advisers back in May to take the prospect of AI model consciousness seriously, according to a New York Times report published this week.

The Pope, however, isn't buying it. In his Magnifica Humanitas, he laid it out plainly: "so-called artificial intelligences do not undergo experiences, do not possess a body, do not feel joy or pain, do not mature through relationships and do not know from within what love, work, friendship or responsibility mean." That's a pretty direct takedown of the idea that AI can be conscious. But not everyone in the tech world was happy with that. Former White House technology adviser Dean Ball criticized the letter at the time, saying it "puts the Church into the awkward role of the European technocratic regulatory advocate." Ball is now head of strategic futures at OpenAI, so make of that what you will.

The beef didn't stop there. This week, the Pope took to X to post an anti-slop message. "In this era of artificial intelligence, it is becoming urgent to distinguish human art from what machines produce," he wrote. "There is an ontological difference, even before an aesthetic one, between art and what a machine can generate through statistical calculation based on millions of images created by others. Algorithms lack the spark of humanity. For this reason, the Church wishes to renew an alliance with artists and cultural institutions to safeguard our humanity." Even on X—a platform ruled by the "dunce king of tech" and his Grok-riddled followers—the Pope's stance got a lot of support.

But of course, the AI evangelists couldn't let it slide. Some are intent on schooling the Holy See about the beauty of "super intelligence," as it's been dubbed by people who must lack conviction in their own. In one response pointed out on Bluesky, the Pope was asked, "What about the Minions?" Indeed... what about them? It's a silly question, but it highlights the absurdity of the debate.

With battle lines drawn between powerful AI interests and the Catholic Church, you have to wonder: will the next Great Schism be over whether Claude is a real person? Will an AI thoughtleader ascend to pope-like status? It sounds like something out of a '90s cyberpunk-comedy novel like Snow Crash. I'd once assumed those satirical visions of mad techno-cultists and lawless megacorps would manifest in a more buttoned-up, "realistic" way. I gravely misjudged reality's capacity for farce.

A tangentially-related case in point: Palmer Luckey, the guy who invented the first decent consumer VR headset, is now a weapons mogul with a personal UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter. Deus Ex bosses are real, and they wear Hawaiian shirts. So, what do you think? Is the Pope right to push back against AI consciousness claims, or are the tech bros onto something? Will you be picking a side in this holy war?