Billionaire tech investor Peter Thiel attacked Pope Leo XIV during comments at the Aspen Ideas Festival, arguing that the Vatican’s warnings about artificial intelligence and calls for government regulation would favor China in the US-China AI race.

Thiel’s criticism centered on the pope’s latest encyclical, in which Pope Leo XIV urged that AI should be “disarmed” and called for tighter international regulation, warning about risks to human work, narratives, and the feasibility of war. Thiel argued that if regulation is pursued in the West, it would slow US progress relative to China, where—he claimed—leaders would be less likely to heed the pope’s plea. He then framed the pope’s stance as serving Chinese interests, saying that, in Thiel’s view, the pope was “working for the Chinese Communists.”

Reports say Thiel made the comment during a panel in Colorado where he referenced both AI regulation and broader political disagreements. The audience reaction included laughter after the pope was characterized in that way.