Pope Leo XIV has rejected the idea of an AI Pope, saying in an interview with biographer Eloise Allen that "if there's anybody who should not be represented by an avatar, I would say the Pope is high on the list" (first spotted by The Register). Pope Leo, who is forthright about his views on the new technology, also said that he had been asked for his authorisation to create an AI Pope

"Someone recently asked authorization to create an artificial me so that anybody could sign onto this website and have a personal audience with 'the Pope'," said the pontiff. "This artificial intelligence Pope would give them answers to their questions, and I said, 'I'm not going to authorize that'."

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[–] 84 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (9 children)

Why would the idea of an AI Pope even make it to the pope?

The pope is supposed to be God’s messenger on Earth, the idea that man creates its own messenger in place of the one God selected is obviously a huge sin of pride.

Now I don’t know that the pope is in fact chosen by God, I’m not even confident in the idea of God, I’m just saying the idea itself is an affront to Catholicism.

Edit: Space Pope might be skirting a technicality here, but I don’t think you can do AI pope even in space.

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  • [–] 19 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    Already saw a church make use of an AI Charlie Kirk to give a sermon they made up. Dangerous road were on when even Jesus himself can start being used to give whatever twisted message these people using AI are trying to do. Why they ask a living pope tho, is weird.

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  • [–] 13 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

    4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

    5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them

    That sounds like creating a graven image and bowing down to it to me…

    (I also like the part where God says if you have to build a stone alter, using a carved/hewn stone is polluting his work)

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  • [–] 10 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    These people are Christian in name only. They only care about the Bible when they can use it to justify their selfishness and hatred.

    Shit, the Bible says in multiple places that life begins at first breath and even has instructions for an abortion ritual, but it won't stop them from using their religion to push their pro forced birth agenda.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago

    A lot of this is why I can’t call myself any religious sect.

    I grew up in the catholic and united church and a bit of Calvinism. The United church was full of fantastic community minded people.

    But eventually I grew agnostic developed the opinion that if there is a god (and there’s no way of knowing) and they care more about rituals and symbols than how you live, then I don’t really care what they think.

    The older I get the more I look at Jesus and feel that guy seemed pretty great. I like what he teaches: treat everyone equal and nobody is beneath you, treat people how you’d like to be treated, love your neighbour, accept strangers. That’s a solid foundation to live by whether you believe in a god or not.

    Then I look south and I just feel gross with how so many evangelicals live their lives. It blows my mind 80%+ of them voted for Trump.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago

    I think AI will lead to a lot of disillusionment in society. If the church can grab Charlie Kirk's image and have him say whatever they want, chances are they are doing that same with the word of God.

    It might seem obvious to us that the church is bullshit, but it isn't for the older generations.

    It's a bit like how my grandma started assuming every phone call is a scam since AI came out. Half of them were scams before too but she used to just barrel into them.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

    A manmade messenger to replace a manmade messenger! As there is no miracle electing the new pope but a unanimous vote decided by deals and schemes of our red friends

    Overall I support ai pope, cause it would be funny

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  • [–] 39 points 1 year ago (1 child)
  • [–] 21 points 1 year ago

    "Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind"

    I guess the pope is a fan of Frank Herbert.

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  • [–] 32 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    'an empty, cold shell that will do great damage to what humanity is about'

    The Catholic Church has already done that job

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  • [–] 13 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Yeah and they want to keep their corner on the market.

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  • Rare Pope W

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  • [–] 11 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Meanwhile, the Dalai Lama has said that he might reincarnate as a computer someday once they're powerful enough.

    Until we can build a PKE meter to actually measure whether souls are present in particular objects it's just duelling religion.

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  • [–] 7 points 1 year ago

    The idea that AI can interpret scripture is funny to me. It's almost like it's an admission there are no divine insights to be made. Though I suppose people could believe God talks to/works through machines.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago

    Although the comment is true. The irony writes itself when you realize, so are religions.

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  • [–] 9 points 1 year ago

    "it's not personal enough. You can't feel the touch of god through a computer. A priest can't feel his congregation needs or the soft skin of a little boy through a keyboard. It's an affront to Jesus, pure heresy"

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago

    AI Pope just really giving it to humanity here and B'GAWD! It's The Real Pope with a folding chaaaaiiiirrrr! Oh! Oh My!

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago

    He says a lot of nice stuff and seems to be a little progressive, I hope he follows through.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Why is that news? What makes you think the pope would have an AI pope?

    Dumb headline.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    "Alright guys, it's hard to get on the news with everything going on in the world. What's gonna go viraaaaal??? I want it to be shared eeeeverywhere! We're gonna be the next scabbadiddle on tiki tak. Can we come up with something about AI? That's a word people are using a lot these days and brings attention! Ok, perfect let's circle back later this afternoon with your best catchy and attention grabbing headlines people!!"

    • Vatican PR team consiglieri
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  • [–] 0 points 1 year ago

    Brains!!

    He's got brains!!

    GOOD!!

    ( in spite of his view that Jesus's "the 2nd law is love your neighbor as your brother" doesn't apply to the alphabet-soup LGBTAgnosticAnglicanWavyhairedNordicTechno-listeningWhatever people ( I'm just being silly, catty, & fey, since if the gays have the right to be that way, then us cishet guys do too!

    so THeRe, eh?

    : p

    There is NOTHING in the new-testament which showed that benJoseph was committed to destroying people born wired into other genders, that I know-of,

    so therefore the positions of the "churches" is standing entirely on stuff that isn't of their root-guru, benJoseph,

    but is in the rest of the book, which their root-guru identified as "mostly rules made by men, not G-D", in their own new-testament.

    Should their root-guru return, he's promised ( Matt 24, iirc ) to return outside their churches, & we'll see how conforming-with-the-churches-he-isn't-of that he's going to be, won't we?

    Should their root-guru return, that is. )

    Here's their root-guru quoting Isaiah, saying that people are taking as G-D's religion rules made by men, which is exactly the point I'm trying to get known..

    https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matt+15%3A7-14&version=CJB

    Pruning-out the non-universal stuff, there is actually little left, of any religion, & it's all principles, not culturally-formed-traditions..

    _ /\ _

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  • 29 comments in c/world view that post
    [–] 58 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Damn, imagine me agreeing wholeheartedly with the Church of all entities. Must be a first for evetything I s'pose.

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  • [–] 31 points 1 year ago

    Funny that the outlet breaking the story is PC Gamer of all things

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  • [–] 16 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    What exactly would the role of an AI Pope even be exactly?

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  • [–] 15 points 1 year ago

    Even the Pope doesn't want his job taken by AI.

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  • [–] 8 points 1 year ago

    "Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind"

    I guess the pope is a fan of Frank Herbert.

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  • [–] 8 points 1 year ago (6 children)

    I happen to agree with the guy in this case, and I acknowledge that he's one of the more progressive pope's in a while, but lets not pretend he has any special knowledge about AI or really anything other than catholicism for that matter.

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  • [–] 24 points 1 year ago (5 children)

    I'm atheist and dislike organized religion, but even I know that to become high ranked in the Catholic church requires a lot of education. All popes speak multiple languages and hold the equivalent of a doctorate degree. This dude in particular holds a degree in mathematics from Villanova.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (4 children)

    So he's an expert on gen AI ?

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    If he has a degree in math, yeah he probably has a better grasp of it than most people. You don't need to be an expert to recognize the potential issues

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (2 children)

    While anything to do with computers is "math" that doesn't mean that someone who is an expert in math has any special knowledge about everything related to computers.

    It's true that you don't need to be an expert to recognize the potential issues.

    My point is, this guy's opinion is not supported by any special credentials.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    His opinion is about AI and popes. He has probably an above average grasp of AI, and an expertise in popes. I'll give it a pass.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    If he said that he thought AI was great and could solve poverty, would you believe that?

    Probably not.

    If not, then you don't value his opinion due to his expertise, you just acknowledge that his opinion aligns with yours.

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  • [–] 7 points 1 year ago

    I particularly enjoyed when he called AI a threat to "human dignity, justice and labor." Heck, he even seems to like Pokemon.

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  • [+] 7 points 1 year ago (3 children)
  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago

    Maybe I'm crazy, but wouldn't creating a clone of the supposedly Holiest man on the planet be considered sacrilege? Pretty sure creating an AI clone would be injurious to the Pope's reputation considering the AI could be manipulated by whoever is in control to get it to say whatever they want it to. That, and it'll just end up hallucinating like crazy just like every other single LLM chatbot in existence.

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  • [–] 9 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    I mean church has done more damage... Shut up about "damage" control..

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  • I agree with The Pope Formerly Known As Bob about AI.

    ...is not something I could have imagined myself saying a year ago 😄

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago

    Space Pope is better than AI Pope

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  • Pedo priests and the popes who protect them do great damage to what humanity is about

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago

    finally someone who explained this whole mess in proper terms 😌

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