Pope appoints AI ethics professor as Vatican adviser
Sunday 13th September 2026 on 08:45 in
Switzerland
Swiss broadcaster SRF reported that Peter G. Kirchschläger, a professor of theological ethics at the University of Lucerne, has been appointed an adviser to the papal development authority. He has held the role since mid-August and will advise Pope Leo XIV on artificial intelligence.
Kirchschläger said he was pleased that the pope had entrusted him with the task and thanked him for his confidence. The 49-year-old’s research has already contributed to the pope’s encyclical on protecting humanity in the age of artificial intelligence.
Born in Vienna in 1977, Kirchschläger grew up in a politically and Catholic-oriented family. His grandfather was former Austrian President Rudolf Kirchschläger. He moved with his family to Lucerne at the age of five and later studied in Lucerne, Rome and Jerusalem.
Kirchschläger now heads the Institute for Social Ethics at the University of Lucerne and is also a visiting professor at ETH Zurich. In recent years, he has become an expert on the ethical use of artificial intelligence. He also lectures internationally and advises organisations including UNESCO and the OECD.
He said the goal was not to criticise technological progress itself, but to challenge the way artificial intelligence is controlled. AI, he argued, must be freed from the control of a few multinational technology companies and placed at the service of humanity and the planet.
Kirchschläger is calling for regulation based on human rights and the creation of an international oversight body within the United Nations to enforce it. He said such an institution was needed as soon as possible.
His work with the Vatican will include meetings in person and online cooperation, depending on the subject. Kirchschläger said he was confident that Pope Leo XIV recognised the threat artificial intelligence posed to human dignity and justice.
He said the Catholic Church and other religious and philosophical communities had a particular ethical role to play. The pope, he added, was a voice that companies and political decision-makers would listen to.