From campus to the Vatican, is an AI backlash growing stronger?
5/29/202627 min
At the Vatican on Monday, Pope Leo XIV issued his first encyclical, a letter issued to the world’s bishops. In it, he criticised artificial intelligence and what he called the “culture of power” fuelling its rise, urging world leaders to regulate the technology more forcefully.
The Pope’s scepticism towards AI does not exist in a vacuum. It comes after several weeks in which numerous commencement speakers championing artificial intelligence on US college campuses were booed by Gen Z graduates.
Is a backlash to AI brewing? We speak to BBC religion editor Aleem Maqbool about the Pope’s AI-critical encyclical, and to Rachel Janfaza, founder of the Gen Z research firm The Up and Up, about why Gen Z’s relationship with AI is far more complicated than many think.
Producer: Xandra Ellin, Cat Farnsworth, and Valerio Esposito
Executive producer: James Shield
Sound engineer: Travis Evans
Senior news editor: China Collins
(Photo: Pope Leo XIV during a meeting with Italian bishops in Vatican City, 28 May 2026. Credit: Vatican Media/EPA)
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First 90 secondsTristan Redman· Host0:00
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Asma Khalid· Host1:05
We were all told that artificial intelligence was our great societal hope, that this new technology would transform our lives, free us up from tedious tasks, help eradicate diseases, and make the world better.
Tristan Redman· Host1:21
The AI revolution apparently will be the biggest change in our lives, and we ought to jump on board whether we like it