The Pope's AI Advisor Warns of 'Cartel' Behavior Among Big AI Labs
Paolo Benanti tells WIRED that hysteria over whether godlike AI could destroy humanity is distracting from the need for public debate about how to govern the technology.
By Joel Khalili | Business | September 23, 2026
Father Paolo Benanti, the Franciscan friar and theologian who serves as an advisor to Pope Francis on artificial intelligence, has a message for the world's leading AI laboratories: the concentration of power in a handful of companies poses a more immediate threat than the speculative doomsday scenarios that dominate public discourse.
Speaking with WIRED, Benanti expressed concern that the overwhelming focus on existential risk—the idea that a superintelligent AI could one day escape human control and destroy civilization—is crowding out the urgent conversation about how AI should actually be governed. In his view, the more pressing danger is the emergence of what he describes as "cartel" behavior among a small number of dominant AI developers, who collectively shape the technology's trajectory with limited public accountability.
From the Vatican to the Global Stage
Benanti, who also presides over an Italian government commission on artificial intelligence, has become one of the most influential voices bridging technology and ethics. His dual role—advising both the Holy See and a national government—places him at the center of a growing international effort to establish guardrails for AI development. He has consistently argued that AI is not merely a technical matter but a profoundly human one, with implications for labor, democracy, and human dignity.
His concerns echo a broader unease that has intensified throughout 2026, as a handful of companies—including OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Anthropic, and xAI—continue to consolidate resources, talent, and compute. Regulators in the EU, the United States, and elsewhere have struggled to keep pace, with enforcement often lagging behind the rapid release of new models.
Hysteria Versus Governance
Benanti's critique targets what he sees as a distraction: the fixation on hypothetical apocalyptic outcomes. While acknowledging that long-term risks deserve consideration, he argues that the current obsession with a "godlike" AI serves the interests of those who would prefer to avoid scrutiny of their current business practices.
"When we talk only about the end of the world," he suggests, "we stop talking about who owns the algorithms, who controls the data, and who benefits from the decisions these systems make today." That shift in focus, he warns, leaves the public without a meaningful voice in shaping the rules that will govern AI for decades to come.
Instead, Benanti calls for a robust, inclusive public debate—one that includes ethicists, workers, civil society, and faith communities—on how to ensure that AI serves the common good rather than the narrow interests of a few corporations. He has previously advocated for international treaties and frameworks that would hold AI developers accountable, similar to how nuclear technology and biomedical research are governed.
A Growing Chorus of Concern
Benanti is not alone in raising the alarm about market concentration. Antitrust regulators in the United States and Europe have opened investigations into partnerships and investments among major AI players, questioning whether these arrangements amount to de facto mergers that stifle competition. Meanwhile, open-source advocates and academic researchers have warned that the dominance of a few labs limits who can participate in—and critique—the development of frontier models.
As 2026 unfolds, the debate over AI governance shows no signs of cooling. With the Vatican's moral authority behind him and a growing platform, Benanti is positioning himself as a key figure in the push for a more pluralistic and accountable AI ecosystem. His message is clear: the question is not whether AI will change the world, but who gets to decide how.
via Wired AI