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Does AI have a soul? Pope Leo and Anthropic clash.

Oct 2, 2026
Does AI have a soul? Pope Leo and Anthropic clash.

Title: Does AI have a soul? Pope Leo and Anthropic clash.

URL Source: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/does-ai-have-a-soul-pope-leo-and-anthropic-clash-0c1669fb?mod=mw_rss_topstories

Published Time: 2026-10-02T19:32:00.000Z

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Does AI have a soul? Pope Leo and Anthropic clash.

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Does AI have a soul? Pope Leo and Anthropic clash.

The Vatican has laid a moral blueprint for the technology, with Pope Leo maintaining that ‘algorithms lack the spark of humanity’

By [Christine Ji](https://www.marketwatch.com/author/christine-ji?mod=article_byline)

Oct. 2, 2026, 3:32 p.m. ET

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![Image 4: Pope Leo XIV waves as he leaves St. Peter's Square.](https://images.mktw.net/im-61148285?width=1260&height=840)

Pope Leo’s “Magnifica humanitas” encyclical argues that AI cannot possess genuine consciousness.Photo: Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

The artificial-intelligence debate has made it to the Vatican, with none other than Pope Leo weighing in on the technology.

In a Friday post on X, Pope Leo took a definitive stance separating human capabilities from those of AI. He declared an “ontological difference” between art made by AI and humans — meaning that the two are fundamentally different by nature.

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