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Pope Leo says AI risk warnings aren't fake news and calls out Nvidia's Huang on regulation

He said he sleeps at night, but the man who put guardrails in chips is the same one who says there should be no limits.

By Think Facility · September 29, 2026 · Nvidia AI safety

Pope Leo XIV told reporters on his flight home from France on Monday, September 28, 2026, that warnings from AI specialists about catastrophic risk deserve to be taken seriously. He then turned to Nvidia's Jensen Huang by title, if not by name, and pointed at what he sees as a contradiction.

The remarks are in Vatican News's working transcript of the press conference, held as the plane flew from Metz to Rome. Justin McLellan of the National Catholic Reporter asked how worried he was that AI could wipe out humanity.

Who

Pope Leo XIV

Where

the flight from Metz to Rome, at the end of his Apostolic Journey to France

When

Monday, September 28, 2026

Named

the head of NVIDIA

Asked by

Justin McLellan, National Catholic Reporter

What he said about Huang

Leo opened by saying he isn't in panic mode and sleeps at night. Then he rejected the idea that the warnings are a stunt.

He said he'd read "just today" that the head of NVIDIA had found a way to put guardrails into AI. That lines up with the day's news: Nvidia put out its Open Agent Safety Platform that morning, and we wrote it up the same day.

That's the Pope's summary of Huang's position, and he didn't say where he'd read it. Huang's own line in the Nvidia release reads differently from the Pope's paraphrase.

The release talks about international cooperation and sharing best practices. It doesn't mention government rules either way.

What he wants instead

Leo's answer to the question was a meeting. He said political leaders, AI leaders and social organizations should sit down together and look at "what could be down the road", and that closing your eyes to it isn't responsible.

He also said the Vatican has set up its own commission on artificial intelligence. It started as a way to coordinate how the Holy See itself uses AI, and he said people from many fields have been in touch since Magnifica Humanitas was published (his own document, which he also pointed a French reporter to on the same flight).

He called himself "relatively optimistic" that AI can be kept from reaching a point where it could destroy humanity. McLellan had also asked what the US and China should do. Leo didn't name either country in his reply.