Pope Leo XIV says the Church will renew its alliance with artists as AI-made art spreads

Pope Leo XIV used a Friday address at the Vatican to say the Catholic Church wants to renew its alliance with artists and cultural institutions, and that human art now needs to be told apart from what machines produce.

“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”

Pope Leo XIV, in Friday's speech, in a speech · hyperallergic.com ↗

He spoke at an event for artists and curators run by the Dicastery for Culture and Education, several of whom had worked on the Holy See's pavilion at this year's Venice Biennale. The same message also went out on his X account.

His argument was that art differs in kind from statistical output built on millions of images made by others. He leaned on his May encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, which holds that algorithms lack the human spark.

That encyclical also called for strong AI regulation. Replies to the X post were largely supportive, though some users defended AI, and the outlets name no follow-up date.