Pope Leo XIV has condemned the growing integration of artificial intelligence into modern warfare, warning that investment in high-tech weapons is pushing humanity toward a "spiral of annihilation." Speaking at Rome's La Sapienza University (a historic institution founded in 1303 and Europe's largest university) in the first papal visit to the campus since 2008, he pointed to conflicts in Ukraine, Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran as evidence of warfare's increasingly inhuman evolution. The pope also criticised soaring military budgets — particularly in Europe — for diverting resources away from education and healthcare, and called for stronger oversight of AI to ensure humans retain moral responsibility for decisions made in war and peace.