"Speaking to the Guardian, readers in the US echoed the pope’s concerns, describing AI as an “unregulated” industry increasingly being used to the “detriment of too many people”, while also raising fears about surveillance, labor displacement, war and environmental harm."

Pope Leo XIV speaks during a meeting with bishops, members of the clergy and families whose members have been victims of environmental pollution at the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, in Acerra, Italy, on 23 May 2026. Photograph: Ciro De Luca/Reuters

 

Americans echo Pope Leo’s concerns about AI: ‘It threatens workers, privacy and human life’

Guardian readers in the US spoke of fears about unregulated AI in response to the pope’s encyclical warning about the risks of the technology

Maya Yang

Sat 30 May 2026 07.00 EDT

In his first major papal text since assuming leadership of the Catholic church last year, Pope Leo issued a stark warning about the rise of artificial intelligence this week, denouncing the “culture of power” driving the AI age.

Calling for the “most rigorous” ethical constraints on AI – which he described as one of the greatest threats facing humanity today – the first US-born pope also warned of “new forms of slavery” emerging through the digital economy.

Speaking to the Guardian, readers in the US echoed the pope’s concerns, describing AI as an “unregulated” industry increasingly being used to the “detriment of too many people”, while also raising fears about surveillance, labor displacement, war and environmental harm.

For Linda Given, a 74-year-old resident of Boston, Massachusetts, who ran a small gift store in Cambridge for nearly 40 years, the pope’s warning resonated deeply.

“I think he’s right to emphasize the dignity of humans, and to warn that things in the AI field are moving both too fast, and without any significant oversight,” Given said, adding: “To use it as any kind of substitute for human interaction or human agency [is] awful … [and] the entirely likely possibility it could be manipulated to do destructive things.”

Stephen Sincoskie, a 55-year-old print shop supervisor from Howell, New Jersey, expressed similar concerns.

“Unregulated AI is a possible threat to workers, privacy and even human life. Unfortunately, the most corrupt family in politics … is making money to look the other way,” he said. 

“I’m concerned the use of AI will replace workers and assist in the ushering in of a fascistic surveillance state. I do not believe for one second the 1% are interested in paying out guaranteed monthly salaries for everyone to relax and enjoy a career and ‘debt free’ life.”

Others focused on the effect AI is already having on education and critical thinking.

Debra, a 58-year-old college professor in Massachusetts, said she worries students are losing critical thinking skills.

“From my perspective, AI is robbing many students of the need to think critically, learn the ways of research and express themselves by writing,”... READ MORE  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/may/30/pope-leo-ai-reaction

    [AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes or watch videos) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]  

Mahmoud Khalil: When Speaking for Palestine Becomes a Crime Mahmoud Khalil is a political prisoner and his unlawful detainment is being used to set precedent implementing facisct policies reminiscent of McCarthy Era First Amendment restrictions

Ahmad Ibsais

Mar 12, 2025

 

Mahmoud Khalil joins a long lineage of political prisoners detained for advocating just causes throughout American history. From Eugene Debs imprisoned for opposing World War I, to Japanese Americans interned during World War II for their heritage alone, to Civil Rights activists like Martin Luther King Jr. who wrote his famous 'Letter from Birmingham Jail' while detained for peaceful protest.

 

As a Palestinian, I learned very young that our very existence was a form of protest. Every family gathering that turned into a political discussion and every celebration existed in defiance of forces that would rather see us disappear. This is why the detention of Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil strikes at the core of my being—I recognize in his abduction the same suffocating tactics used to silence Palestinians for generations, now deployed on American soil against those who dare speak our name.

Khalil’s detention by ICE agents on March 8, marks a watershed moment in American democracy. As his pregnant wife watched helplessly, government agents took away a legal permanent resident whose only "crime" was serving as a negotiator in campus protests calling for university divestment from companies profiting from Israel's Genocide on Gaza.

Let us be clear: Mahmoud Khalil is a political prisoner—detained not for any recognizable crime, but for criticizing Israel. There is no law against calling for the end of Genocide, nor should there be in a constitutional democracy. Yet the Trump administration has effectively created such a crime, linking legitimate criticism of a colonial state to “antisemitism,” by abducting and detaining a green card holder solely for his political expression.

After Khalil's detention, the official White House Instagram account published an image of him with the words "Shalom Mahmoud" plastered across it—a chilling taunt that reveals the administration's contempt for due process and basic human dignity. His temporary disappearance into the ICE detention system—his lawyers couldn't locate him for over 24 hours—mirrors the tactics of authoritarian regimes worldwide.

What makes this moment particularly dangerous is that it didn't begin with Trump. It was precisely the Biden-Harris administration's demonization of student protesters as antisemitic that laid the groundwork for Trump's assault on Columbia and other universities. In January 2025, a far-right pro-Israel group submitted a list of students with visas to the Trump administration, urging their deportation for pro-Palestine advocacy. Within days, the administration issued an executive order threatening visa revocation for protesters. Secretary of State Marco Rubio made the agenda explicit, writing: "We will be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported."

Across American universities, suppression has manifested in student expulsions, organizations being disbanded, and unprecedented surveillance: nine universities have forcibly shut down their Students for Justice in Palestine chapters; Columbia University expelled three students; and UCLA reportedly spent $12 million to surveil and challenge student protesters. This institutional violence mirrors the academic purges of the McCarthy era, when professors were blacklisted for ideological nonconformity.... READ MORE  https://ahmadibsais.substack.com/p/mahmoud-khalil-when-speaking-for?publication_id=1020749&post_id=158862987&isFreemail=true&r=34riug&triedRedirect=true

 [AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or watch videos) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine ]

Noura Erakat: "It was the Biden administration, it was the Democratic establishment, that has created the conditions that we are now seeing taken advantage of," Palestinian scholar says of Mahmoud Khalil's arrest and the Trump administration's crackdown on dissent.

   https://x.com/4noura

In 1948 Albert Einstein along with 28 other prominent Jewish leaders wrote a letter to the New York Times… It stated that the Israeli political party resembled the Nazi Party in its ideology and methods. Einstein went on to say that he opposed the state of Israel and it was against the religion of Judaism

Albert Einstein passionately argued against the creators and creation of Israel. He called it a terrorist organisation.

Albert Einstein Letter to The New York Times published December 4, 1948

Internet Archive  pg 2-3

https://archive.org/details/AlbertEinsteinLetterToTheNewYorkTimes.December41948/page/n1/mode/2up

Topics

Einstein, Arendt, anti-fascism, Zionism, Palestine, Irgun, Israel