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 figure he sees as halting the progress of tech and advocating for a “one world government” of regulation — according to a series 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.”
The 44th president recently urged Democrats to come up with a comprehensive approach to regulating AI.
As for the pontiff, Thiel suggested his focus on AI was an attempt to divert attention 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 religious leader recently saying the tech could create a “paradise of machines” that risks undermining humanity — echoing some of the most dire prediction from AI doomers.
Thiel’s comments, which were delivered during letures on Sept. 28 and on Monday, provided a rare look into the conservative techie’s evolving political priorities.
Thiel’s anti-regulation stance isn’t new. The viewpoint is widely shared among venture capitalists in Silicon Valley.
What’s different from his conservative tech counterparts is Thiel’s decision to cast the political disagreements in religious terms, while also attacking the leader of the Catholic Church, Politico noted.
That shift could have an impact in the world of politics. Thiel was an early supporter of President Donald Trump and a major financial backer of Vice President JD Vance’s entry into politics from the world of venture capitalism.
Thiel’s attacks on the church could complicate life for Vance, a converted Catholic, Politico pointed out. Democrats jockeying to position themselves for a 2028 presidential run, have already begun taking aim at Vance over his ties to the billionaire investor.
Reps for Thiel, Obama, Vance and the Vatican did not comment to Politico.