AI’s impact on young minds can be worse than an addiction to nicotine or cocaine, said a moral theologian who advises the pope.
In a Wednesday interview with the BBC’s “Newsnight,” Paolo Benanti said AI technologies could be “super manipulation tools.”
“The emotional bending that such a kind of machine can produce in young adults and kids could be much, much worse than the addiction of nicotine or sugar or cocaine,” he added.
Benanti is a Franciscan friar who teaches at Pontifical Gregorian University with a focus on the ethics of technologies. He has become a go-to advisor for the Vatican. He is also part of the Pontifical Academy for Life, a Vatican body whose members are selected by the pope to promote the Catholic Church’s teachings on the sanctity of life.
He told the BBC that it is necessary to be “really clear and careful” to protect young people from the effects of AI. “When we start to develop the scooter, we force them to have a helmet,” he added. “It’s time to have a brain helmet.”
Benanti pointed to the “uneven relation of power,” in which tech leaders “can manipulate and control the most fragile brains.”
“Democracy needs brains that are able to have an opinion on facts,” he added.
His remarks come after AI leaders, including Elon Musk and OpenAI’s Sam Altman, backed Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s calls to slow development and embed third-party safety evaluators within their companies.
Benanti said international treaties are necessary to ensure that AI is beneficial to humanity.
While the pope is not a politician, Benanti said he “has the power to speak to everyone.”
“I think that we will use it to call for an international action to protect the most fragile people from AI,” he added.
Pope Leo has made AI a central concern of his pontificate. His papal name was inspired by Pope Leo XIII, who reigned in the late 19th century and was best known for affirming workers’ rights amid rapid industrialization.
Earlier this year, Pope Leo published his first encyclical, a 40,000-word letter titled “Magnifica humanitas: on safeguarding the human person in the time of artificial intelligence.” He warned repeatedly about AI power becoming concentrated in “the hands of a few,” and said the technology must be “disarmed, welcoming and accessible.”
Other research has also raised concerns about young people’s use of AI. In July, Deloitte said its survey of 1,150 parents found that half were concerned their children rely too much on the tech, and nearly 30% said their children were already using generative AI in schoolwork.
Some studies have also suggested that AI can weaken independent thinking. MIT researcher Nataliya Kosmyna found that people who used generative AI for essays performed worse over time than those using Google or no aid. A Harvard Business Review study found some workers managing multiple AI tools reported mental fog, headaches, and slower decision-making.
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