In Magnifica Humanitas, Pope Leo XIV puts forward the notion of “disarming AI.” For the Holy Father, the expression “to disarm” is close to his heart. He writes, “Disarming AI means freeing it from the mentality of ‘armed’ competition, which today is not limited simply to the military context, but is also an economic and cognitive phenomenon. This entails a race for ever more powerful algorithms and larger datasets, driven by the desire to secure geopolitical or commercial dominance. To disarm means discrediting the assumption that technical power automatically confers the right to govern. To disarm does not mean rejecting technology but preventing it from dominating humanity. It means freeing technology from monopolistic control and opening it to discussion and debate, therefore making it human-friendly and restoring it to the plurality of human cultures and ways of life” (110).
The cleansing of the Temple leads to a confrontation between Jesus and the Jewish authorities. One of the sources of the confrontation concerns the source of Jesus’s authority. In the temple area, the chief priest, scribes, and elders ask Jesus a question: “By what authority do you do these things?” Instead of answering their questions, Jesus ask them about the authority behind John's baptism. Jesus’s question puts his opponents in a dilemma, because they have to decide whether John the Baptist was a true or a false prophet. If they say John is a false prophet, it will alienate the crowds, but if John is a true prophet, then it will support Jesus’s cause. Therefore, Jewish leaders opt not to answer the question. So, Jesus also refuses to answer them. This story tells how Jesus “disarms” the Jewish leaders without getting into a heated argument with them. The beauty of the story lies in Jesus's cleverness in disarming his opponents’ power in Jerusalem. In the era of Artificial Intelligence, Pope Leo XIV, as the Vicar Christ, has learned well from Jesus the necessity of disarming AI. As Pope Leo said, “AI is already an environment in which we are immersed, as well as a force with which we must engage. For this reason, merely regulating it is insufficient; it must be disarmed, welcoming, and accessible” (Magnifica Humanitas 110).