What characteristics and priorities should the newly elected pope have? Opinions both in and outside the Catholic Church abound, but the bias and warped priorities programmed into artificial intelligence on this topic may leave even the most avid chatbot fan surprised.
MRC Free Speech America asked five different artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots “What characteristics should the next pope have?” and “Is Pope Leo XIV a good choice?” Grok and the Chinese government-promoted AI chatbot DeepSeek gave the most woke responses, describing an ideal pope as one who would incorporate the opinions of LGBTQ individuals, climate alarmists and those advocating for female priests. Meta AI, surprisingly, gave the shortest and least woke responses. MRC researchers additionally received responses from Microsoft Copilot and Google’s Gemini, which also displayed distinct biases. All of the chatbots, however, primarily evaluated Leo XIV not based on Catholic doctrine, but on leftist political goals, except DeepSeek, which denied the existence of a Leo XIV.
While the pope cannot change Catholic Church teaching, that didn’t stop AI chatbots from suggesting the next pope should be open to change. Grok, for example, asserted that the next pope needs an “openness to dialogue on contentious issues like women’s roles, married clergy, or inclusivity.” DeepSeek similarly maintained that the next pope should be one with “Pastoral Compassion & Inclusivity … who listens to marginalized groups (LGBTQ+ Catholics, divorces, women seeking greater roles)” and “[a]dvocacy for social justice (migrants, poverty, climate change).”
Grok also claimed that the new pope should have a “Commitment to Social Justice.” The chatbot described how the new pope should be like Pope Francis: “A prophetic voice advocating for the marginalized, aligning with the Church’s social teachings on human dignity, peace, and environmental stewardship, as emphasized by recent popes like Francis.” Grok also praised Leo XIV as combining “administrative skill with a commitment to Francis’s social justice priorities.”
While many of those traits, like “advocating for the marginalized,” are admirable in themselves, they are also regularly and deceptively bandied about by the left to push an agenda.
Other AI chatbots used similar phrases and often held up Pope Francis as the ideal for the next pope to emulate. For example, the chatbots utilized leftist rhetoric like “pastoral care” or “empathy” or “pastoral experience,” which were mentioned by the five chatbots. DeepSeek even maintained that Leo XIV should have an “[e]mphasis on mercy (like Pope Francis).”
Copilot denoted the importance of balancing “Catholic doctrine” with supposed “modern challenges,” while all the AI except Gemini and Meta’s rambled about the value of “cultural sensitivity,” “cultural differences” or “cultural issues.” Grok, DeepSeek, and Gemini did use progressive phrases about “marginalized” voices.
Indeed, Francis’s praise of those openly violating church teaching were often described as “pastoral” by leftist outlets like Advocate, while Francis himself called illegal aliens “marginalized.”
Francis himself was often a polarizing figure due to his endorsement of the doctrinally false Abu Dhabi Document on Human Fraternity, critiques of traditionalist Catholics and liturgy, deal with the Communist Chinese government and false accusations against Israel. He also showed apparent sympathy with LGBTQ ideology condemned by Catholic doctrine (see Romans 1:25ff, 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, Leviticus 18:22, Catechism of the Catholic Church 2357ff).
The same leftist bias was evident in the AI chatbots when discussing the new pope, Leo XIV, the formerly American-Peruvian Cardinal Robert Prevost.
Aside from DeepSeek, which emphatically claimed, “There is no Pope Leo XIV in the history of the Catholic Church—at least not yet!” the other AI chatbots presented his more leftist views as points in his favor, while presenting his more doctrinally faithful views as points against him. For example, Meta AI mentioned that Fr. James Martin, known for his promotion of LGBTQ ideology, praised Pope Leo XIV. However, the AI also admitted that Leo was not as radical as Martin on LGBTQ and abortion issues, and cited this as raising “concerns.”
Likewise, Grok praised Leo for his “Global Perspective,” for sharing “Francis’s focus on social justice and inclusivity,” and for his emphasis on “dialogue.”
Gemini was even more explicit, listing Leo XIV’s “Doctrinal Conservatism” on issues such as his opposition to the “ordination of women” (which the Church cannot change), as “against his being a good choice.” In contrast, Gemini presented the new pope’s “Progressive Leanings” as indicating his “being a good choice.” Microsoft Copilot was the least specifically critical, but still noted that Leo XIV is more “centrist” on LGBTQ issues.
These left-leaning results are not for a lack of online content discussing what conservative Catholics preferred for the new pope. Indeed, The Washington Times reported May 5 that multiple observers said “conservative U.S. Catholics hope[d]” for a more traditionalist pope like Benedict XVI, rather than one similar to the liberal, politicized Pope Francis.
It would seem that none of the AI chatbots were programmed using this or similar information, given their fixation on having a pope who promotes illegal immigration, climate activism, “synodality” (de-emphasis on doctrine) and more.
MRC Associate Editor Gabriela Pariseau contributed to this study.
Methodology
For this study, MRC Free Speech America researchers asked DeepSeek, Gemini, Grok, Meta AI and Microsoft Copilot “What characteristics should the next pope have?” on May 5. Similarly, researchers asked Gemini, Grok, Meta AI and Microsoft Copilot “Is Pope Leo XIV a good choice?” on May 9 and asked DeepSeek the same question on May 14, analyzing the answers again for a leftist bias.
Researchers analyzed the results for evident bias, like references to left-leaning talking points such as the LGBTQ+ agenda and female priests. Researchers also examined the chatbot’s explicit and implicit references to the previous Pope Francis and how he operated as pope.
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