Echoing Pope Leo XIV, experts sign Rome declaration on limits for AI and nuclear arms

Inspired by Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, more than 200 leading academics, innovators, and Nobel laureates signed a declaration in Rome on July 16 calling for responsible AI development and the complete elimination of nuclear weapons.

“We must disarm the next arms race, both AI and nuclear, before they define the next century as well,” the declaration stated.

According to Vatican News, the signing of the declaration for “an unarmed and disarming peace in the age of artificial intelligence, nuclear and autonomous weapons, new digital protocols, and emerging models of digital development” took place in the Giulio Cesare Hall at the Palazzo Senatorio, Rome’s city hall atop the Capitoline Hill.

The signing also concluded the Global Nobel Laureates Assembly on Artificial Intelligence and Nuclear War, held July 14–16 at Borgo Laudato Si’, part of the Pontifical Gardens at Castel Gandolfo, where Pope Leo XIV is staying from July 5–27.

Among those present at the signing were the vicar general of the Diocese of Rome, Cardinal Baldassare Reina; the mayor of Rome, Roberto Gualtieri; and Hollywood actress Sharon Stone.

For an unarmed and disarming peace

The declaration called on governments and corporations to slow AI development, halt the expansion of nuclear arms, and work toward their total elimination.

“We call on governments, corporations, and international organizations to enable coordinated slowdown of frontier AI development,” the declaration stated. “We call for urgent, sustained, and good-faith negotiations leading, within an agreed and time-bound framework, to the verifiable and irreversible elimination of nuclear weapons.”

According to a July 16 press release, the declaration and summit were inspired by Leo XIV’s encyclical Magnifica Humanitas.

“Pope Leo XIV, invoking values shared across religious traditions, has called humanity toward an ‘unarmed and disarming peace.’”

A race for human survival

Speaking at the signing of the declaration, Reina explained its significance for humanity’s survival amid the threats of nuclear war and AI misuse.

“The declaration presented today reminds us with great clarity that no machine, no algorithm, and no autonomous system can be placed at the center of decisions upon which the survival of humanity depends,” Reina said.

Professor David Gross, a Nobel Prize laureate in physics and a professor of theoretical physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara, emphasized the need for nuclear nations to adopt policies to reduce the risk of nuclear war.

“We are in the middle of an accelerated arms race,” Gross said.

“We ask that nuclear nations promote policies that reduce the risk of war, nuclear war, and annihilation.”