Pope Leo XIV is tapping into public fears of artificial intelligence (AI) to distract people from the Catholic Church’s latent child sex abuse scandals, Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel has claimed. The gay US tech billionaire also accused former President Barack Obama of exploiting opposition to AI for political gain.

The remarks come as AI developers themselves warn that the technology could soon spiral beyond human control. OpenAI chief Sam Altman and xAI owner Elon Musk have backed calls to slow the development of increasingly powerful AI models after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei warned that rogue systems could seize control of vast swathes of the internet within months, causing hundreds of billions of dollars in damage.

The warnings have fueled demand for the tougher oversight of AI, with rival tech giants calling for safeguards against a technology they fear could evade human control.

During a series of closed-door lectures in Nashville, Thiel singled out both leaders while stepping up his warnings about the Antichrist, a prophesied figure traditionally associated with deception and opposition to the teachings of Jesus. Thiel has argued that such a figure could exploit fears of AI and other catastrophic threats to halt technological progress and impose a heavily regulated “one world government.” His remarks, delivered on September 28 and October 5, were revealed by Politico on Thursday.

“Many people know that AI is politically unpopular and want to leverage that to boost their own popularity,” Thiel said. “Both Obama and the pope fall into this category. Obama knows the Democrats have no ideas, but they can at least oppose AI.”

Obama recently urged Democrats to develop a more comprehensive strategy on artificial intelligence.

The openly gay Republican surveillance company billionaire went on to accuse Leo XIV of using the debate over AI to shift attention away from decades of sexual abuse scandals within the Catholic Church.

“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, published in May.

Leo XIV has made AI a major focus of his papacy, warning about the dangers of unchecked development and its impact on human dignity, individual freedoms and the concentration of power.

Earlier this week, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told Politico that the world should accept some “bad things” from AI, including hacks, scams and misuse, in exchange for its benefits. However, he drew the line at “the really catastrophic risks,” including “a serious loss of control to AI.”

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has also called for government regulation, warning that AI in the hands of malicious actors could trigger events causing “a billion deaths.” Nobel Prize-winning computer scientist Geoffrey Hinton has similarly warned that increasingly powerful systems could eventually escape human control, with catastrophic consequences for humanity.