Michael Gove on why the Pope's AI intervention shames our politicians

Michael Gove on why the Pope's AI intervention shames our politicians

From Holy Smoke by The Spectator

May 28, 2026 · 15 min

About this episode

Michael Gove discusses the implications of the Pope's encyclical on artificial intelligence and its relevance to modern politics.

The Spectator 's editor Michael Gove ‘was born into a sternly Presbyterian culture’, but – in this week's magazine – is ‘giving thanks to the Pope’ for producing  Magnifica Humanitas , his encyclical about artificial intelligence (AI). AI will be ‘as transformative as the Industrial Revolution’ but decisions ‘about where this technology is going and how it might be deployed are concentrated... in perilously few hands’. Michael joins Damian Thompson on Holy Smoke to explain why the document reveals Pope Leo to be 'intellectually confident and coherent', what the Christian response to AI should be and why he believes Catholic social teaching is 'absolutely essential' in instructing us for how to deal with this next technological revolution. Produced by Patrick Gibbons. Become a Spectator subscriber today to access this podcast without adverts. Go to spectator.co.uk/adfree to find out more. For more Spectator podcasts, go to spectator.co.uk/podcasts . Contact us: podcast@spectator.co.uk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

People in this episode

Host: Damian Thompson

Guest: Michael Gove

Topics covered

  • artificial intelligence
  • Catholic social teaching
  • Pope's encyclical
  • technology and society
  • Christian response to AI

Keywords

  • Pope
  • AI
  • Magnifica Humanitas
  • Catholic teaching
  • technology
  • politics
  • Michael Gove

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: The Spectator

Books & works: Magnifica Humanitas

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