By Vicky Sidler | Published 14 March 2026 at 12:00 GMT+2

Have you ever been so incredibly tired of answering basic client questions that you wished you could just clone yourself?

Someone recently pitched this exact idea to Pope Leo XIV. According to Futurism, developers asked for authorization to create an artificial intelligence avatar of the Pope so anybody could log onto a website and have a personal audience with him. They wanted a digital replica to automatically dispense spiritual answers to the masses.

His response was a very swift, very absolute refusal.

If the leader of the Catholic Church understands that outsourcing his personal judgment to a chatbot is a terrible strategic move, why are so many small business owners rushing to do exactly that?

Before you replace your entire customer service process with a language model, we need to look at the holy mess brewing at the Vatican.

TL;DR:

• Pope Leo XIV explicitly banned the creation of an AI avatar designed to give personal spiritual advice to the masses.

• He warned that extremely wealthy tech billionaires are pouring money into artificial intelligence while completely ignoring actual human needs.

• The Pope noted that finding the presence of God in artificial intelligence is going to be very difficult.

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Table of Contents:

Why Is The Catholic Church Fighting Chatbots?

To figure that out, you just have to look at the sheer absurdity of the pitch.

The Pope stated that if there is anybody who should not be represented by a digital avatar, he is incredibly high on that list. He has already had to deal with the headache of fraudulent news and a deepfake video showing him falling down a flight of stairs.

But an unauthorized funny video is one thing. Handing over the official theological advice of the Church to a predictive text algorithm is an entirely different level of corporate negligence.

What Happens When A Holy Chatbot Hallucinates?

Language models are famous for confidently making things up.

The idea of a digital Pope is perverse precisely because these models hallucinate. As the article points out, there is a very real risk of an AI Pope suddenly going completely off the rails and advising a user to steal their local church's collection plate.

If a multi-billion dollar religious institution refuses to risk its reputation on a hallucinating chatbot, why on earth are you letting one write your consulting proposals? But the Pope's anger is not just directed at the software itself.

Who Is Actually Profiting From This Digital Crusade?

Pope Leo XIV did not just stop at banning his own digital clone.

He explicitly called out the extremely rich people who are dumping fortunes into artificial intelligence while completely ignoring the needs of humanity. He warned that if the Church does not speak up, the digital world will go its own way and turn regular humans into pawns left by the wayside.

This is not just a technological debate; it is a massive shift in global power. And calling out the richest men on earth usually comes with consequences.

Why Did The Pope Start A Feud With Elon Musk?

When you publicly criticize tech billionaires, they tend to tweet about it.

When the Pope criticized the massive piles of wealth accumulated by Elon Musk, the tech billionaire actually fired back on the social media platform X. Musk quoted a Bible verse at the Pope, specifically Matthew 7:3-5, which famously asks why you notice the speck in your neighbor's eye but ignore the log in your own.

The Pope has made his stance on developers building artificial general intelligence incredibly clear, stating that it will be very difficult to discover the presence of God in AI.

So how does this billionaire Vatican drama actually apply to your service business?

How Does This Divine Drama Affect Your Business?

You might not have a billion followers, but you do have a client base that trusts your specific human judgment.

When you use artificial intelligence to write your emails, generate your marketing videos, and answer your client questions, you are doing exactly what the Pope refused to do. You are creating a cheap, digital simulation masquerading as yourself.

And just like a hallucinating chatbot telling someone to steal from a church, your automated marketing is going to eventually say something incredibly stupid that permanently damages your brand.

How Do You Protect Your Most Sacred Business Asset?

Your authority is the only reason people hire you.

When you use artificial intelligence to churn out generic content, you are telling your clients that your expertise is so cheap, a robot can do it for free. To win in an automated world, your marketing has to sound like a real person wrote it. It needs your specific voice, your specific opinions, and your specific flaws.

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FAQs:

1. Did the Catholic Church create an AI Pope?

No. Pope Leo XIV explicitly rejected a pitch to create an artificial intelligence avatar of himself. Developers wanted to create a website where people could have a personal audience with a digital Pope, but he refused to authorize it.

2. Why is the Pope against an AI avatar of himself?

The Pope believes he is high on the list of people who should not be represented by a digital clone. Artificial intelligence is prone to hallucination, and the idea of an AI Pope giving terrible or sinful advice to the masses is incredibly perverse.

3. Why did Elon Musk quote the Bible at the Pope?

Pope Leo XIV criticized extremely rich people for pouring loads of money into artificial intelligence while ignoring humanity's needs, and specifically called out Elon Musk's accumulated wealth. Musk retaliated on the social media platform X by quoting Matthew 7:3-5, a verse about ignoring the log in your own eye.

4. What does the Pope think about artificial general intelligence?

The Pope is deeply skeptical of developers building AGI. He stated that it is going to be very difficult to discover the presence of God in artificial intelligence.

5. Why shouldn't I use an AI avatar for my business?

If a global religious institution refuses to risk its reputation on a hallucinating chatbot, you should not risk your service business on one either. Your clients pay for your human authenticity and judgment. Using an avatar to automate your customer service destroys the exact trust you need to make a sale.