PayPal Mafia's Peter Thiel is 'fighting' Vatican again, blames Pope for ‘supporting’ China

Peter Thiel has renewed his criticism of the Vatican. The billionaire investor and PayPal co-founder has accused Pope Leo XIV of unintentionally helping China by advocating stronger regulation of artificial intelligence (AI). Thiel made the remarks during a panel discussion at the Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado, where he argued that tighter AI rules could slow US development while giving China an advantage.Speaking at the event alongside political scientist Francis Fukuyama, Thiel took aim at Pope Leo XIV's recent call for international AI regulation,a CNN report noted. Thiel argued that while the Pope's message could influence people in America, it was unlikely to have the same impact in China, and would likely affect only one side of what he described as the AI race between the two countries. In his remarks, Thiel said Leo is "working for the Chinese Communists." The audience responded with laughter, the report added.In May, Pope Leo XIV issued his first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas ("Magnificent Humanity"), stating that AI "must be disarmed" and calling for greater international oversight of the technology.Peter Thiel’s long-running disagreement with the VaticanThe latest comments add to an existing disagreement between Thiel and the Vatican. Earlier this year, Thiel delivered a private lecture series in Rome on the Antichrist near the Holy See. According to the report, the lectures prompted two Catholic universities to publicly clarify that they were not involved in hosting the events.Thiel has previously even argued that the Antichrist may not appear as an individual but could emerge as a global government that gains power by promising to protect humanity from threats such as AI or climate change.Apart from AI regulation, Thiel also shared his views on US politics, democracy and technology during his latest discussion. Thiel spoke about Palantir Technologies, the software company he co-founded, saying it is not closely tied to what he described as the US "deep state" despite its contracts with federal agencies. He added that he believes having multiple centres of influence, including technology companies, is beneficial because it distributes power rather than concentrating it in one place.Talking about the future of American politics, he said: “I think there’s going to be a democratic-socialist takeover of the Democratic Party.”“The Republican Party doesn’t matter that much. It’s the less important one. When the Democratic Party goes, this country is over,” Theil added.During the event, Thiel also made an unsupported claim that the AI company Anthropic would "rig the elections in 2028" to support Democrats. Anthropic declined to comment on the claim and instead referred to one of its blog posts on election integrity and political bias, the report noted.Meanwhile, discussing the European Union, Thiel compared its governance model to AI and said: “The EU is rule of law. It is like bad AI.”Get the latest technology news and updates. Download the TOI App.