Thiel targets Pope and Obama over AI in new ‘Antichrist’ lectures

Peter Thiel has argued that former President Barack Obama and Pope Leo XIV are stoking public fears over artificial intelligence merely to enhance their own popularity.

In newly disclosed “Antichrist” lectures obtained by Politico, Thiel specifically targeted the two leaders while warning against the Antichrist, which he sees as halting technological progress and advocating a regulatory “one-world government”.

“A lot of people know that AI is politically unpopular, and they want to use that to boost their own popularity,” Thiel reportedly said during his address in Nashville.

Thiel continued:

“Both Obama and the pope fall into this category. Obama knows that Democrats have no ideas, but at least they can oppose AI.”

Obama recently called on Democrats to develop a comprehensive approach to the regulation of artificial intelligence.

Referring to Leo’s first encyclical on AI, “Magnifica Humanitas”, Thiel said: “The Church needed a politically popular issue to divert attention from child sexual abuse scandals, and it found it in AI.”

On the pontiff, he stated verbatim:

“AI is the greatest threat to late modernity. The pope realizes this. That is why he wrote his first encyclical… The Church needed a politically popular issue to divert attention from child sexual abuse scandals, and it found it in AI.”

In recent months, Pope Leo has gone on the offensive against artificial intelligence. The leader of the Catholic world recently said that this technology could create a “paradise of machines” that could endanger humanity.

Thiel’s relationship with the Catholic Church is fraught. This spring, largely in response to Thiel’s earlier lectures on the “Antichrist”, Vatican adviser Father Paolo Benanti penned an article entitled “The American Heresy: Should We Burn Peter Thiel?”

Throughout the lectures, Thiel framed familiar technology debates in religious terms.

Citing Matthew 24:24, for instance, the investor quoted:

“For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to deceive, if possible, even the elect.”

Regarding this verse, he asked in Nashville: “And what about the psychology of the Antichrist? Could he see himself as the Christ?”

In his Nashville lectures, he also delved into the concept of the “Katechon”, drawn from the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians, which restrains the arrival and rise to power of the Antichrist.

Figures who may have briefly assumed the role of the Katechon throughout history included Charlemagne and Klemens von Metternich.

“If anti-communism is the Katechon holding back communists trying to create a communist one-world state, then neoliberalism is anti-communism in a world without communists,” Thiel said.

In both San Francisco and Nashville, Thiel devoted a significant portion of his opening lecture to addressing “effective altruism”.

This ideology rests on the premise that human beings should always act to minimise existential risk to the species and maximise positive long-term impact.

Many effective altruists and affiliated groups are based in San Francisco and work on artificial intelligence research.

In Nashville, Thiel criticised their ideas. This stance reflects the fact that they have dominated much of the recent AI safety debate, showing Thiel’s concern over the growing influence of this group.

Thiel stated:

“One reason [the effective altruists’] strategy works, of course, is that an apocalypse is impossible to undo. You only have one planet. Even Greta [Thunberg] was right about that. … So you can’t just ignore the risks. But we must also take seriously that when you establish a near-totalitarian one-world government empowered to stop all dangerous scientific work, undoing that will not be easy either… There is no historical example suggesting this global warden would willingly surrender power. Effective altruist ideology has brainwashed a significant portion of the people working on AI.”

The remarks delivered by Thiel in his lectures on 28 September and on Monday provide a rare glimpse into the conservative tech billionaire’s shifting political priorities over time.

Thiel’s opposition to regulation is not new. That perspective is widely shared among Silicon Valley venture capitalists.

What distinguishes Thiel from his peers in the conservative tech sector is his decision to frame political disputes in religious terms while simultaneously attacking the leader of the Catholic Church.

This shift could reverberate across the political arena. Thiel was an early backer of President Donald Trump and served as a major financial sponsor of Vice President JD Vance’s transition from venture capital into politics.

Politico noted that Thiel’s attacks on the church could complicate matters for Vance, a Catholic convert.

Democrats positioning themselves for the 2028 presidential election have already begun targeting Vance over his ties to the billionaire investor.