Peter Thiel told an Aspen Ideas Festival panel that Pope Leo XIV is effectively “working for the Chinese Communists” because the Vatican’s message urging AI regulation would limit progress on the U.S. side while China would ignore any restraint. Thiel’s remarks—made on a nonrecorded panel also featuring political scientist Francis Fukuyama—were tied to a papal encyclical released in May that calls for AI to be “disarmed” and urges greater international governance of the technology.

The report said the audience laughed at the comment. A request for comment from the Vatican was not answered, and the panel itself was not recorded, so the specifics of any back-and-forth were not detailed. Thiel’s broader point was that restraint aimed at safety or regulation could become a unilateral disadvantage if other major powers do not match the same limitations.