Paolo Benanti Warns That Apocalyptic AI Talk Is Crowding Out Public Governance Debate

Paolo Benanti, a Franciscan theologian and Vatican adviser on artificial intelligence, has warned that fixation on whether godlike AI could destroy humanity is distracting from a more immediate question: how the technology should be governed in public. His intervention lands as AI leaders, researchers, lawmakers, and religious institutions are arguing over whether the biggest risk is future superintelligence, current misuse, or the concentration of power among the companies building frontier systems.