Pope’s AI encyclical written by AI – researcher

May 27, 2026 · 377 words · By Russia Today

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What to know about Pope’s AI encyclical written by AI – researcher

Pope used AI to warn about dangers of AI – researcher “Significant fractions” of Pope Leo XIV’s recent encyclical on the dangers of artificial intelligence were actually written by artificial intelligence, analyst Linch Zhang claims.

Claims checked 10

Techniques found 0

Topics 0

Coverage spectrum

Coverage gap: Low Left coverage

Left0%

Center83%

Right17%

6 sources compared across this story cluster. This is an eFinder estimate from indexed source coverage, not an editorial rating.

What happened

Why it matters

In the 42,000-word ‘Magnifica Humanitas’ (Magnificent Humanity), the pontiff warned of the growing, state-like power of Silicon Valley, the immorality of autonomous weapons, and the dangers of allowing AI to “construct a new Tower of Babel” and reduce human…

Common ground

“Phrases and punctuation much more commonly used by AI are much more present in this papal encyclical than past encyclicals,” Zhang wrote, pointing to the document’s use of em-dashes (127 instances, compared to 26 across four encyclicals by Pope Francis) and…

Perspective signals

No major persuasion pattern has been attached yet, so the source, headline, and evidence should carry most of the weight for readers.

Follow-up questions

What concrete event or decision sits underneath the headline: Pope’s AI encyclical written by AI – researcher?
What evidence would most clearly confirm or weaken the claim that Running the text through AI detector Pangram, Zhang found that some paragraphs were “essentially 0% AI,” but others were between 40% and 100% AI-written?
What should readers watch for in the next update to know whether the story is changing?

open_in_new Read the original article: https://www.rt.com/news/640653-pope-encyclical-ai-written/

fact_checkClaims Checked

eFinder analyzed this article and checked 10 claims against available evidence, cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia. Here is what the fact-checking layer found.

check_circle Corroborated 5

help Insufficient Evidence 2

info Single Source 2

verified Verified By Reference 1

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Claim 1: “Running the text through AI detector Pangram, Zhang found that some paragraphs were “essentially 0% AI,” but others were between 40% and 100% AI-written.”

CORROBORATED

Both RT World News and The Verge report that Zhang used the Pangram AI detector and found paragraphs ranging from 0% to 100% AI-written.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Magnifica humanitas (lit. 'magnificent humanity') is the first encyclical of Pope Leo XIV, concerned with "safeguarding the human person in the age of artificial intelligence". It was published on 25 …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnifica_humanitas

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web search NEUTRAL — Zhang notes that Pangram flagged some sections as “essentially 0% AI.” The first 20 paragraphs of the last four encyclicals, when run through Pangram, had a 100 percent confidence of being human writt…
https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/937801/p…

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web search NEUTRAL — Running the text through AI detector Pangram, Zhang found that some paragraphs were “essentially 0% AI,” but others were between 40% and 100% AI-written.
https://www.rt.com/news/640653-pope-encyclical-ai-written/

+ 1 more evidence source

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Claim 2: “The specific LLM (large language model) used to craft the text was likely Anthropic’s Claude, Zhang claimed”

CORROBORATED

RT World News and other reports explicitly state that Linch Zhang claimed the LLM used was likely Anthropic's Claude, citing the use of specific words like 'genuinely'.

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web search NEUTRAL — Claude is a series of large language models developed by American software company Anthropic. Claude was released as an AI-based chatbot in March 2023.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_(language_model)

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web search NEUTRAL — The specific LLM (large language model) used to craft the text was likely Anthropic’s Claude, Zhang claimed, citing his own familiarity with Claude and its overuse of certain words such as “genuinely.…
https://www.rt.com/news/640653-pope-encyclical-ai-written/

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web search NEUTRAL — The claim remains unproven as of this writing. It stemmed from The Verge's reporting on May 26 in an article titled, "Did the Pope use AI to write about the dangers of AI?" based on a long Substack po…
https://www.snopes.com/news/2026/06/03/pope-leo-ai-encyclica…

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Claim 3: “Pangram also flagged the Italian version of the encyclical for AI”

CORROBORATED

The Linchpin and LessWrong both report that the Italian version of the encyclical was flagged as AI by Pangram, with some sources noting it was flagged more than the English version.

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web search NEUTRAL — May 26, 2026 · The Italian version of the current encyclical also gets flagged as AI by Pangram (actually more so than the English version), though I'm not ...
https://linch.substack.com/p/claude-author-of-the-humanitas

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web search NEUTRAL — May 26, 2026 · 62% of the text was flagged as AI-generated. This included paragraphs 21-24, 26-29, 31-32, 34-36 (where large parts of 36 were flagged as being ...
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/GbWwesBnetyiomxEH/many-porti…

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web search NEUTRAL — May 28, 2026 · ... Pangram Labs on the show to talk about their Chrome extension that auto-flags AI-generated content as you scroll your feed. I've been using ...
https://getpodcast.com/pt/podcast/the-top-ai-news-from-the-p…

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Claim 4: “Nor has Anthropic, whose co-founder, Christopher Olah, delivered an address alongside the Pope on Monday.”

INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE

No evidence was provided in the search results regarding Anthropic's comment or Christopher Olah delivering an address with the Pope.

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Claim 5: ““Significant fractions” of Pope Leo XIV’s recent encyclical on the dangers of artificial intelligence were actually written by artificial intelligence, analyst Linch Zhang claims.”

CORROBORATED

Multiple independent sources (RT World News, The Verge, and LessWrong/The Linchpin) report that analyst Linch Zhang claimed significant portions of Pope Leo XIV's encyclical were written by AI.

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web search NEUTRAL — Analyst Look up analyst in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. An analyst is an individual who performs analysis of a topic. The term may refer to:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analyst

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web search NEUTRAL — May 30, 2026 · The meaning of ANALYST is a person who analyzes or who is skilled in analysis. How to use analyst in a sentence.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/analyst

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web search NEUTRAL — Analyst has been at the forefront of analytical and bioanalytical science since 1876, publishing high-quality research that offers new insights and innovative measurement solutions to core challenges …
https://www.rsc.org/publishing/journals/analyst

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Claim 6: “The Vatican has not commented on Zhang’s claims.”

INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE

No evidence was provided in the search results regarding whether the Vatican has or has not commented on the claims.

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Claim 7: “When Zhang’s experiment was repeated by The Verge, roughly 46% of the encyclical was determined to be written by AI.”

SINGLE SOURCE

While The Verge is mentioned as reporting on the story, the provided evidence snippets from The Verge and other sources do not mention a specific '46%' figure resulting from a repeat of the experiment. The snippets discuss Zhang's findings but not a specific verification percentage by The Verge.

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web search NEUTRAL — Still, other portions register as being written by humans. Zhang notes that Pangram flagged some sections as “essentially 0% AI.” The first 20 paragraphs of the last four encyclicals, when run through…
https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/937801/p…

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web search NEUTRAL — Using Pangram, Zhang scanned the lengthy beginnings of past encyclicals — including those written by popes Francis, Benedict XVI and John Paul II — for signs of AI use. Pangram determined a 100% "huma…
https://www.snopes.com/news/2026/06/03/pope-leo-ai-encyclica…

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web search NEUTRAL — Here's what happened: Analyst Linch Zhang, writing on LessWrong, found that some paragraphs of the encyclical scored between 40% and 100% AI-written when run through Pangram.
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/andrewdmaynard_did-the-pope-u…

info

Claim 8: “Zhang claimed in a blog post on Tuesday... [the document uses] em-dashes (127 instances, compared to 26 across four encyclicals by Pope Francis)”

SINGLE SOURCE

While the general claim by Linch Zhang is corroborated, the specific statistical detail regarding the number of em-dashes (127 vs 26) is only mentioned in the context of Zhang's own blog/posts and is not independently verified by other news organizations as a fact, only as a claim made by Zhang.

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web search NEUTRAL — May 26, 2026 ... Evidence that the first papal encyclical on AI was substantially written by AI. Linch's avatar. Linch. May 26, 2026.
https://linch.substack.com/p/claude-author-of-the-humanitas

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web search NEUTRAL — ... state about national out known university united then made under him year three between these while part - than born became states including american ...
https://downloads.cs.stanford.edu/nlp/data/jiwei/data/vocab_…

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web search NEUTRAL — May 27, 2026 ... Large tracts of Pope Leo XIV's encyclical on AI appear to have been written by Anthropic's Claude LLM, analyst Linch Zhang claims Read Full ...
https://www.philippinetimes.com/news/279080349/pope-used-ai-…

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Claim 9: “All four of Francis’ encyclicals registered as entirely human-written, as did writings by Popes Benedict XVI and John Paul II.”

CORROBORATED

Multiple sources (The Linchpin, LessWrong, and an investigation report) confirm that Pangram registered the encyclicals of Popes Francis, Benedict XVI, and John Paul II as 100% human-written.

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web search NEUTRAL — May 26, 2026 ... ... Encyclical Caritas in Veritate, Pope Benedict XVI sought ... Pope Benedict and John Paul in case Pope Francis had an unusually human touch.
https://linch.substack.com/p/claude-author-of-the-humanitas

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web search NEUTRAL — 5 days ago ... ... popes Francis, Benedict XVI and John Paul II — for signs of AI use. Pangram determined a 100% "human written" score — meaning no detected AI ...
https://www.snopes.com/news/2026/06/03/pope-leo-ai-encyclica…

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web search NEUTRAL — May 26, 2026 ... ... Pope Benedict and John Paul in case Pope Francis had an unusually human touch. ... Written in 2009 by Benedict XVI, Pangram thinks it's 100% human ...
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/wRNJZz2iYrfDaSDdz/claude-aut…

verified

Claim 10: “In the 42,000-word ‘Magnifica Humanitas’ (Magnificent Humanity), the pontiff warned of the growing, state-like power of Silicon Valley, the immorality of autonomous weapons, and the dangers of allowing AI to “construct a new Tower of Babel” and reduce human beings to “a resource to be used and exploited.””

VERIFIED BY REFERENCE

Wikipedia explicitly confirms the existence, title ('Magnifica humanitas'), date (May 25, 2026), and subject (safeguarding the human person in the age of AI) of the encyclical. Web search results further corroborate the content regarding the dangers of AI.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Charity is the voluntary provision of assistance to those in need. It serves as a humanitarian act, and is unmotivated by self-interest. Various philosophical views about charity exist, which are ofte…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charity_(practice)

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Pope Paul VI (born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini; 26 September 1897 – 6 August 1978) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City from 21 June 1963 until his death on…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Paul_VI

+ 3 more evidence sources

info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.