{"id":454856,"date":"2026-05-26T17:59:05","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T15:59:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/05\/26\/lue-risponde-presente-allappello-del-papa-sullia-in-europa-un-quadro-giuridico-efficace-e-gia-realta\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T18:39:49","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T16:39:49","slug":"the-eu-responds-to-the-popes-call-on-ai-an-effective-legal-framework-is-already-in-place-in-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/05\/26\/the-eu-responds-to-the-popes-call-on-ai-an-effective-legal-framework-is-already-in-place-in-europe\/","title":{"rendered":"The EU responds to the Pope\u2019s call on AI: \u201cAn effective legal framework is already in place in Europe\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – The European Commission has responded to Pope Leo XIV\u2019s call for stricter regulation of artificial intelligence<\/strong> (AI) systems, as set out in the encyclical letter “Magnifica Humanitas”<\/b><\/a> presented at the Vatican on 22 May. Or rather, according to the EU executive, Brussels has already heeded the Holy See\u2019s exhortations by launching the process to amend the
\nArtificial Intelligence Act <\/p>\n

<\/a>(AI Act), on which the European Parliament and the Council announced on 7 May that they had reached an agreement<\/b><\/a>.<\/p>\n

The core of the encyclical letter dedicated to \u201cthe protection of the human person in the age of artificial intelligence<\/strong>\u201d, the first document of its kind in Robert Prevost\u2019s pontificate, is the appeal to all the world\u2019s governments to impose stricter limits on the development and use of AI technologies<\/strong>, described by Leo XIV as \u201cyet another Babel<\/strong>.\u201d Just as those who sought to build a tower reaching to the heavens to defy God \u2013 so the Pope argues \u2013 the tech giants too are driven \u201cby the idolatry of profit that sacrifices the weak, by uniformity that erases differences, and by the demand for a single language<\/b>.\u201d All of these are negative values that open the door to the risk of \u201cdehumanisation.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the usual midday briefing with journalists<\/a>, the European Commission\u2019s spokesperson on technological issues, Thomas Regnier<\/strong>, stated that the Berlaymont Building fully shares the Vatican\u2019s position. \u201cIn Europe, an effective legal framework on AI is already a reality<\/strong>,\u201d he explained, citing some of the EU measures on artificial intelligence: first and foremost, the AI Act, but also the Digital Services Regulation<\/a>, the one on Digital Markets<\/a>, and the one on Data protection<\/a>.<\/p>\n

According to the spokesperson for the European Commission, these rules already address some of the critical issues surrounding AI that Leone highlighted. For example, Regnier emphasised, \u201cthanks to our legal framework, we can protect minors, but also women, from the use of nudifier apps<\/strong>\u201d, those AI systems capable of virtually undressing people without their consent and creating artificial child pornography. \u201cThis content,\u201d Regnier insisted, \u201chas no place in Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the European Commission has fully endorsed the general thrust of Leone\u2019s appeal, it remains to be seen what Brussels\u2019 position is on a far more contentious issue: the role of the owners of major tech companies in the United States and their fundamental hostility to stricter rules and controls<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

While it is true that there are some exceptional cases of tech giants who have demonstrated that they share the Pope\u2019s vision of a more ethical and “human” AI\u2014for example, the co-founder of the US company
\nAnthropic<\/a>, Christopher Olah<\/strong>, attended the launch ceremony for Magnifica Humanitas and has repeatedly referred to the moral dimension of his work\u2014the general trend is diametrically opposed. The main owners of AI companies in Silicon Valley view the new European regulations and the Vatican\u2019s appeals with scepticism, to say the least<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In this regard, one of the figures most hostile to Pope Leo is Peter Thiel<\/strong>, founder of the payment system PayPal <\/em><\/strong>and the data analytics company Palantir<\/strong>. A staunch Trump supporter and aspiring “guru”, Thiel has even gone so far as to describe the technological regulation of AI systems as one of the \u201cmore or less occult forces\u201d representing the Antichrist<\/strong> and which \u201cwork tirelessly to destroy what remains of the West.\u201d<\/p>\n

In light of this, during today\u2019s briefing, Regnier was explicitly asked whether the Commission is prepared to include Palantir on the list of AI companies classified as “high-risk”<\/strong>. This would be a particularly significant decision, as these companies will be required to comply with higher safety standards from 2 December 2027 (a deadline postponed by the new version of the AI Act from the original deadline of 2 August this year).<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to go into the specific details of any individual company<\/strong>,\u201d Regnier cautioned, \u201cbut I can assure you that there is no legal loophole in our legislation and that every high-risk model must meet much stricter criteria and provide a risk analysis<\/strong>.\u201d Otherwise, the Berlaymont spokesperson concluded, \u201cit will be completely banned within the EU<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Let\u2019s hope that\u2019s the case, given the “<\/span>troublesome clients” to whom Thiele\u2019s company offers its services<\/strong>. According to an investigation by the weekly magazine Internazionale<\/i>, Palantir has carried out data analysis for the Israeli army in the Palestinian territories and for ICE<\/strong>, the US immigration enforcement agency responsible for numerous acts of violence and the killing of two American citizens<\/a> during a series of protests in January this year.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The European Commission has stated that it \u201cfully shares\u201d the vision set out by the Pope in his first encyclical letter, “Magnifica Humanitas”. Brussels has already set December 2027 as the date for stricter rules to come into force for “high-risk” AI companies, but it remains to be seen whether Silicon Valley giants will also be included<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7899,"featured_media":454807,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25710],"tags":[26426,29100,25821,34232,28885,34233,34234],"class_list":["post-454856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-net-tech-en","tag-ai-en","tag-ai-act-en","tag-artificial-intelligence-en","tag-enciclica-papa-leone-su-ia","tag-ia-and","tag-palantir","tag-peter-thiele"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7899"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454856"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454856\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":454857,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454856\/revisions\/454857"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}