The commission will coordinate AI policy and projects across Vatican institutions, including setting rules for AI use within the Holy See itself. It includes representatives from seven Vatican bodies, such as the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.

Cardinal Michael Czerny said the body would help the Church address the challenges posed by artificial intelligence “for the whole Church, and the whole world".

The Vatican has engaged with AI ethics for years, including meetings with Google, Microsoft, and Cisco executives and Pope Francis’ address on AI ethics to the G7 in 2024, but those efforts had not previously been centrally coordinated.

Ahead of Leo’s election, the Vatican also introduced internal AI guidelines requiring disclosure of AI-generated content and banning uses of AI that conflict with the Church’s mission.

Leo XIV, the first American pope and a former mathematics student, has repeatedly warned about the risks AI poses to “human dignity, justice, and labor", while also acknowledging the technology’s potential benefits if used responsibly.

The pope has compared the rise of AI to the Industrial Revolution and linked his forthcoming encyclical to Rerum Novarum, Pope Leo XIII’s landmark 1891 text on labor rights.

Unlike governments pursuing legal or market-based AI regulation, the Vatican’s approach focuses primarily on moral teaching around human dignity, workers, children, and the common good.

Additional reporting from Reuters