By Guardian community team
Publication Date: 2026-05-27 11:41:00
The first American pope has caused a stir since he took office. But after his recent comments – that AI could make civilization less human and a call for governments around the world to actively slow AI development – people in the US are divided.
Some Americans celebrated the comment, with former New York Council member Brad Lander calling it “courageous moral leadership” and Florida Representative Anna Paulina Luna telling her constituents on social media that she agreed with Pope Leo’s views. In contrast, Doug Burgum, the US Secretary of the Interior, declined, saying he did not know “that technical writing was part of the Pope’s role”; while David Sacks, the former White House AI and crypto czar, posted on X that government regulation of AI poses serious dangers.
“If we give governments broad power over AI development in the name of security, how can we prevent it from being abused to censor, monitor and control citizens,” Sacks asked.
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