Pope Leo Issues Encyclical Warning of AI’s Potential Dangers If Left Unregulated

Trump left the door wide open for midterms with '$100 million' mistake: GOP analyst

As results came in for the Texas GOP Senate primary, CNN analysts weighed in on what the cost will be down the line.Veteran CNN correspondent Brian Todd said that President Donald Trump's decision to endorse Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is a "$100 million mistake." Trump chose to endorse Paxton over Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), whom political pundit Alyssa Farah Griffin described as a "monster fundraiser and big contributor to Senate Republicans."CNN anchor Anderson Cooper already pointed out that nearly $130 million has been poured into the Texas GOP primary. According to Griffin, if Paxton wins and squares off with Democrat Rep. James Talarico (D-TX), "you may be having to bail out this candidate who has tremendous vulnerabilities."Todd, meanwhile, said that one of "Paxton's biggest weaknesses is that he's a bad fundraiser." He also said Cornyn's defeat gave Democrats a "theoretical chance" of winning in the midterms, but predicted that Republicans would retain Cornyn's seat, even though doing so could be costly. Cooper described Talarico as a "phenomenal fundraiser."Political commentator Van Jones agreed. "Trump has taken a big gamble tonight," but it was "a reckless gamble," he said."He's going to wind up flushing $200 million down the drain in Texas to pull this off," Van Jones said.

Physician flags warning signs in Trump's 'incomplete' physical exam: 'Not acceptable'

A physician flagged multiple warning signs in President Donald Trump's latest semi-annual physical exam on Tuesday. Dr. Jeffrey Kuhlman, a former White House physician and author of "Transforming Presidential Healthcare," joined CNN's Jake Tapper on "The Lead" to discuss the results of Trump's latest physical. Trump claimed on Truth Social that his exam went "perfectly," but Kuhlman noted several aspects that needed further attention. Trump's exam happened at a time when questions about his health are continuing to swirl. The president has been seen sleeping in meetings, walking around the White House grounds with a significantly bruised hand, and displaying his swollen ankles on more than one occasion. "One of the things that has concerned me about the White House physician, both the current one and under the previous president, is that sometimes they list some medications that the president is taking, but not all of them," Kuhlman said. "Another one is that sometimes they don't give tests to the president, perhaps because they don't want the results to be known."Kuhlman added that there are still several pieces of information missing from Trump's exam, which he described as "incomplete.""Well, I think that the information, if we say it nicely, is incomplete," he said. "What they should address to an 80-year-old are the big three. Advanced age is the number one risk factor for cardiovascular disease, cancer, and neurodegenerative disease. So for an 80-year-old, it is not acceptable to say, 'Here's a blood pressure; here's an EKG.' They should be assessing his cardiac function." "For example, we see that he walks up long stairs on Air Force One. That's commendable," he continued. "Or we see that he walks across the south lawn to the helicopter again."Kuhlman added that the White House physicians should be doing more "objective testing" of Trump, based on the results Kuhlman saw. "They should do objective testing like a treadmill, like a stress test," he said. "Cardiac imaging of the heart, the coronary arteries, the calcium score ultrasound of the valves, and not just say 'normal,' but they should say, 'Here's the ejection fraction, here's the function of the four valves. And they are not even listing the different tests that he's had."

Pope Leo Uses First Major Papal Text to Warn About Dangers of AI

The 42,300-word encyclical urges greater regulation of artificial intelligence.

How Pope Leo’s Encyclical is a Rejection of President Trump’s Approach to AI

Leo XIV's "Magnifica Humanitas" never mentions Donald Trump. But on autonomous weapons, regulation, and more, it reads like a point-by-point rebuttal of his AI agenda.

Kevin O'Leary Says the War on AI Data Centers Is Being Driven by Foreign Agents

Pope Leo’s Unsettling Vision of the AI Future

His new encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, seeks to counterbalance alarm with hope but lands firmly on one side.

Vance calls Pope Leo’s AI warnings ‘profound’

In an interview with NBC News, Vance said he is glad the pope tackled AI. He also discussed why X remains off his phone after he deleted it for Lent.

5 ways Pope Leo says AI could warp humanity

Pope Leo XIV is warning that the artificial intelligence race could become a new Tower of Babel — a dazzling human achievement that concentrates power, weakens truth and turns people into data points.Why it matters: The long-awaited document, Magnifica Humanitas ("Magnificent Humanity"), signals that the Vatican is aggressively positioning itself as a central moral authority in the global tech debate.Driving the news: The Vatican released Leo's first encyclical on Monday, which he signed at St. Peter's on May 15, 2026, in the second year of his pontificate.It was signed exactly 135 years after Leo XIII's Rerum Novarum, the landmark 1891 encyclical that became the foundation of modern Catholic social teaching during the Industrial Revolution.Zoom in: The pope's core message in his stark, 43,000-word warning is that AI can be useful, but it is not neutral. He said AI systems carry the values of the people and institutions that design, finance, train and deploy them — especially when they decide who gets a job, credit, public services or reputational standing.Leo gave the following warnings: AI can erode human judgment by offering instant answers that weaken creativity, discernment and the patience needed to seek truth.AI can simulate care without relationship, making vulnerable users mistake artificial empathy for genuine human connection.AI can deepen inequality because data, computing power and regulatory influence are concentrated among a small number of actors.AI can destabilize democracy by amplifying disinformation and blurring the line between fact and fiction.AI can make war easier by speeding up lethal decisions and distancing humans from responsibility. Leo's starkest line: "No algorithm can make war morally acceptable."What they're saying: "Pope Leo has announced himself as one of the leading figures in AI ethics now with this document," Meghan Sullivan, director of Notre Dame's Institute for Ethics and the Common Good, tells Axios.Sullivan said Leo's AI encyclical is likely to be remembered as one of the major documents in Catholic history.Mirela Oliva, a philosophy professor at the University of St. Thomas, tells Axios that Leo's encyclical should be read less as a rejection of AI than as a call to shape the "AI era" around human dignity."The pope is calling for new guidelines for AI, and these new guidelines are rather to be developed from the bottom up rather than top down."What we're watching: Dan Rober, a Catholic Studies professor at Sacred Heart University, tells Axios the encyclical's biggest impact may be whether Leo's language starts shaping AI regulation debates.Rober said that Leo's warnings about children, screens, AI platforms and people using chatbots as therapists or substitutes for friendship could resonate well beyond Catholic circles.