Trump Official Throws Shade at Pope Leo for ‘Editorializing’ About AI

Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum threw shade at Pope Leo XIV for warning against the use of artificial intelligence in a recent address.

On Monday, the Pope delivered his first encyclical titled “Magnifica Humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence.” In the document, the Pope acknowledged that AI can be a “valuable tool,” but urged the need for a “measured and viligant” approach to its continued use and development. The pontiff also spoke of the importance of remaining human and not allowing technological advances to replace humanity.

The next morning, Fox host Maria Bartiromo brought up the address during an interview with Burgum.

“I mean, Secretary, even Pope Leo this weekend issuing a major document Monday focused largely on the implications of the rise of artificial intelligence,” Bartiromo said. “The Pope saying that this technology could make civilization less human. Why is the Pope commenting about AI right now?”

In response, Burgum said:

Well, I didn’t know that tech editorializing was part of the role of being Pope. But certainly, some of these states that have got very high electricity prices today, and they’ve got high electricity prices today because of the policies they’ve pursued with trying to go with intermittent, unreliable, weather-dependent sources of electricity. We’ve got to get back to base load power to make this whole thing work, but the future is very bright if we can make sure we can get this stuff built.

Last week, Burgum criticized the use of solar power at a congressional hearing, claiming the energy source was effectively useless when the sun wasn’t out. Burgum was then mocked when someone mentioned the invention of the battery.

Watch above via Fox Business

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