Pope slams AI abuse after Trump’s Jesus post

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Pope Leo XIV. Photo by Filippo MONTEFORTE / AFP.

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Pope Leo XIV on Friday warned that the AI boom could fuel “conflict, fear and violence” while on a trip to Cameroon marked by his ongoing spat with US President Donald Trump.

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While Leo has called for caution on artificial intelligence several times since his election in May 2025, his latest warning comes as Trump faces a backlash over a now-deleted AI-generated post seemingly depicting the US leader as Jesus.

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After holding Mass in the stifling heat in Cameroon’s economic capital Douala for more than 120,000 joyous worshippers — the biggest event of his landmark Africa trip so far — the leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics sounded the alarm over the perils of the technology.

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“The challenge posed by these systems is greater than it appears: it is not just about the use of new technologies, but about the gradual replacement of reality by its simulation,” he said in a speech to teachers and students at the Catholic University of Central Africa in the capital Yaounde.

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“In this way, polarisation, conflict, fear and violence spread. What is at stake is not merely the risk of error, but a transformation in our very relationship with truth.”

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It marks the pontiff’s latest outspoken intervention on his 11-day Africa tour that has seen him abandon his previous restraint to deliver impassioned pleas for world peace — and tussle with fellow American Trump.

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– ‘Handful of tyrants’ –

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After the pope criticised the US-Israeli war with Iran, Trump lashed out at Leo, branding him “weak on crime and terrible for foreign policy”.

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He then posted an AI-generated image seemingly depicting himself as a Christ-like figure, which he later deleted after religious leaders accused him of blasphemy.

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And shortly after Leo denounced the “handful of tyrants” ravaging the world in a speech on Thursday, the US president said the pope needed to understand the realities of a “nasty world”.

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Far from the Trump broadsides, Leo has been greeted by adoring, singing-and-dancing crowds wherever he has gone in Cameroon.

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Some of Friday’s throng had travelled far or arrived the previous night in the hope of catching a glimpse of the pope at his Douala Mass.

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Waving “branches of peace” and Vatican flags, to lively choral music punctuated by percussion, the crowd chanted “Long live the pope!” as Leo arrived in a popemobile at the esplanade outside the Japoma Stadium.

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“It’s the achievement of a Christian lifetime. When I was little, I thought you couldn’t see the pope with your own two eyes,” Marguerite Tedga, 72, said after waiting all night with friends from her parish.

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Edith Fifi, a 25-year-old beautician, said seeing the pontiff gave her “a feeling of deliverance”.

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“I was deeply moved by his message, and what I remember most is his call for sharing,” she said.

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But some Cameroonian Catholics had feared that Leo’s visit could help President Paul Biya, who has ruled with an iron fist since 1982, burnish his image.

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Douala, one of central Africa’s largest ports, was among the cities to see a violent crackdown on demonstrations against the re-election in October of a man who at the age of 93 is already the world’s oldest head of state.

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Witnesses have reported that the security forces fired live rounds into the crowds. The authorities have acknowledged dozens of deaths without giving a precise toll.

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– No to ‘plunder’ –

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Without mentioning Trump or Biya by name, Leo has delivered unusually pointed speeches across his African tour — ignoring Catholic US Vice President JD Vance’s call to “stick to matters of morality”.

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In his speech on AI on Friday, the pope also condemned the “environmental devastation” caused by the extraction of the rare earths essential to the technology’s stunning growth — a cornerstone of the Trump administration’s approach to Africa.

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And Leo also demanded an end to the corruption of a mining industry through which foreign powers — China foremost among them — reap the riches of Africa’s wealth while locals suffer.

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After arriving in the country Wednesday, the pope urged Cameroon’s leaders to root out corruption and abuses carried out in the name of order — within Biya’s earshot.

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The Catholic Church plays an important social role in Cameroon, where more than a third of the population of 30 million people are Catholic.

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Leo wraps up his visit to the country with a Mass early Saturday.

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He was previously in Muslim-majority Algeria for a visit marred by two suicide bombings.

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The pope heads on to Angola before wrapping up his 18,000-kilometre (11,200-mile) tour in Equatorial Guinea.

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