Pope's AI Advisor Accuses Tech Giants of Cartel Behavior

Father Paolo Benanti, a theologian and philosopher who advises the Catholic Church on technology, has warned that the world's leading artificial intelligence laboratories are behaving like a "cartel." Benanti argues that the intense focus on existential threats and superintelligence is a self-serving distraction. By framing AI safety as an incredibly complex issue that only they can solve, companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google DeepMind are effectively excluding the public and democratic institutions from shaping the rules.

According to Benanti, the narrative pushed by these frontier labs is designed to secure and protect their market dominance. While executives like Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei have called for mandatory third-party evaluations and restrictions on model distillation, Benanti believes the rules governing AI must not be written by the creators themselves. Instead, he advocates for democratic regulations that establish clear human control over the technology, comparing the necessary guardrails to "brakes, and a wheel."

Benanti also criticizes the tendency within Silicon Valley to treat artificial intelligence with a reverence usually reserved for the divine. He rejects OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s past aspiration to construct a "magic intelligence in the sky," pointing out that AI is not a deity but rather the product of statistical computation. This mystical framing, Benanti warns, distorts public understanding and discourages ordinary citizens from demanding a say in how these systems are deployed.

This perspective aligns with the Vatican's broader push for ethical technology. In May, Pope Leo XIV released an encyclical dedicated to artificial intelligence, warning against a technocratic mindset that prioritizes efficiency over human dignity. The Pope urged global superpowers and tech firms to abandon their quest for commercial and geopolitical dominance. Benanti cautions that the current panic over humanity's extinction risks undermining these efforts by leaving the future of AI entirely in the hands of a small group of corporate executives and scientists.