Billionaire tech investor Peter Thiel reportedly slammed former President Barack Obama and Pope Leo XIV for stoking the public’s fears about artificial intelligence just so they can “boost their own popularity.”
Thiel singled out the two leaders as he warned about the Antichrist — a determine he sees as halting the progress of tech and advocating for a “one world government” of regulation — according to a sequence of recordings of closed-doors lectures that were obtained by Politico.
“Many people know that AI is politically unpopular and want to leverage that to boost their own popularity,” Thiel reportedly said in Nashville.
“Both Obama and the pope fall into this category. Obama knows the Democrats have no ideas, but they can at least oppose AI.”
Peter Thiel ripped former President Barack Obama and Pope Leo XIV over stoking fears about artificial intelligence. HANNIBAL HANSCHKE/EPA/Shutterstock
The forty fourth president not too long ago urged Democrats to come up with a complete method to regulating AI.
As for the pontiff, Thiel steered his focus on AI was an attempt to divert consideration from the Catholic Church’s sexual abuse scandals, Politico reported.
“He needed something politically popular to distract from the church’s child sex abuse scandals, and he found it in AI,” Thiel said, referring to the pope’s first encyclical on AI.
Recent months have seen Pope Leo go on the offensive against AI, with the non secular chief not too long ago saying the tech could create a “paradise of machines” that dangers undermining humanity — echoing some of the most dire prediction from AI doomers.
Former President Barack Obama not too long ago stoked fears over AI, according to Thiel. Getty Images
Thiel’s feedback, which were delivered during letures on Sept. 28 and on Monday, supplied a uncommon look into the conservative techie’s evolving political priorities.
Thiel’s anti-regulation stance isn’t new. The viewpoint is broadly shared among enterprise capitalists in Silicon Valley.
What’s totally different from his conservative tech counterparts is Thiel’s resolution to solid the political disagreements in non secular phrases, while also attacking the chief of the Catholic Church, Politico famous.
That shift could have an affect in the world of politics. Thiel was an early supporter of President Donald Trump and a main financial backer of Vice President JD Vance’s entry into politics from the world of enterprise capitalism.
Thiel steered Pope Leo XIV’s focus on AI was an attempt to divert consideration from the Catholic Church’s sexual abuse scandals, Getty Images
Thiel’s attacks on the church could complicate life for Vance, a transformed Catholic, Politico pointed out. Democrats jockeying to place themselves for a 2028 presidential run, have already begun taking purpose at Vance over his ties to the billionaire investor.
Reps for Thiel, Obama, Vance and the Vatican did not remark to Politico.
