Pope Leo XIV called on artists to join an alliance aimed at protecting what is distinctly human, telling them that art preserves "the spark of the human," according to Vatican News. The pope made the remarks on Saturday, October 3, 2026, in a message directed at artists.
Coverage of the address focused on his criticism of artificial intelligence. El Financiero reported that the pope said algorithms do not share the spark that belongs to people, and Sopitas.com reported that he again criticized AI following a New York Times investigation into the company Anthropic. El Informador framed the message as a call for an alliance to defend the human in the face of the threat posed by AI.
Aleteia reported that the pope said the Church needs art created by human hands. The outlets did not quote the full text of his remarks, and no complete transcript of the address was available.
The comments add to a broader public debate over how generative AI is used in creative work, a discussion that has drawn attention from religious leaders as well as artists and technology companies. The pope's message places the Catholic Church's voice in that debate, according to the reports.
What to watch next: whether the Vatican publishes the full text of the pope's address and whether he returns to the subject of AI and human creativity in future remarks.
