New to this? Read it in simple words
- Pope Leo, the head of the Catholic Church, spoke about AI with reporters on a plane.
- He said warnings from AI experts are real and should be taken seriously.
- He criticised the head of Nvidia for opposing government rules for AI.
- He said he is not panicking, and that he is fairly hopeful.
- Guardrails
- Limits built into AI to stop it from doing harm.
- Regulation
- Rules set by governments that companies must follow.
- Papal flight
- The plane on which the Pope travels and often answers questions.
Pope Leo XIV took questions from about 80 journalists on September 28, as he flew from Metz to Rome at the end of a four-day trip to France.
What he said
A reporter asked how worried he is that AI could pose catastrophic risks to humanity. “If someone were to ask me, am I in panic mode? No, I’m not. I sleep at night,” he answered.
“I do think that the concerns raised by many of the experts, specialists in AI, should be taken seriously,” he said. “I don’t think that is fake news, as some have said.”
Dates from Nvidia, the Vatican transcript and the White House accord.
The remark about Nvidia
The Pope said he had read that day that “the head of NVIDIA” claims to have found a way to put guardrails into AI. The aim is to stop it causing the harm people fear. He did not name Jensen Huang.
“He’s the same one, however, that says there should be no limits placed and no government regulation,” the Pope said. That day, Nvidia had launched a platform that it says can contain AI agents that go outside their limits.
The reports we read carried no response from Nvidia.
What he wants
He said political leaders, AI leaders and civic groups need to sit down and talk. The Vatican has set up its own commission on AI, which began by coordinating the Holy See’s own use of the technology, he said.
He said he is “relatively optimistic” that AI can be kept from reaching a point where it could destroy humanity. “But we have to keep working, we can’t sit back and pretend nothing is going to happen.”
Sources
Every fact in this story comes from the sources below. Open them to check our work.
- 1Primary source · September 28, 2026Pope: Wars are senseless; Russia and Ukraine should sit down to talk Vatican News
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The Pope named “the head of NVIDIA”, not Jensen Huang. Linking the remark to Nvidia’s launch that day is our context, not the Pope’s words.
Pope Leo says fears about AI are not ‘fake news’. Silicon AI News, September 30, 2026. https://siliconainews.com/stories/pope-leo-ai-risks-nvidia
Pope Leo said experts’ fears about AI should be taken seriously and criticised Nvidia’s chief, though he is relatively optimistic. How we rate the mood
The mood shows how the news frames the event for the tech and AI world: as an opportunity (6 and above) or as a loss (below 5). It is not our verdict on who is right.