When Peter Thiel took his Antichrist lecture series from San Francisco to Rome last week, he probably expected to ruffle a few Vatican feathers. What he may not have anticipated was the pope's AI adviser asking (in an essay title, at least) whether he should be burned at the stake.
We've covered Thiel's Antichrist thesis before, but here's the short version: Thiel believes the Antichrist won't be a charismatic villain in a cape, but rather a political force that exploits apocalyptic fears – climate doom, nuclear war, runaway AI – to justify global governance and a surveillance state.
In his view, the real threat isn't technology itself, but those who would use fear of it to seize control. The usual suspects in his framework include climate activists, AI safety researchers, and, notably, the current Pope.
That last part may explain why bringing the tour to Rome did not go over so well.
"American Heresy: Should Peter Thiel Be Burned at the Stake?"
That's not a tabloid headline. It's the actual title of a formal essay by Father Paolo Benanti, a Franciscan friar who serves as the pope's official adviser on artificial intelligence. Published in a French newspaper, his perspective is a theological takedown that pulls no punches.
Benanti characterized Thiel as a "political theologian" within Silicon Valley, arguing that his vision represents something more dangerous than simple contrarianism. The essay's central charge is striking: Thiel's actions "can be read as a prolonged act of heresy against the liberal consensus: a challenge to the very foundations of civil coexistence, which he now considers outdated."
The Church Piles On
Benanti has not been alone in criticizing Thiel. L'Avvenire, the newspaper of the Italian bishops' conference, published a series of articles warning that tech leaders should not be permitted to define their own ethical limits, and that governments must defend democratic oversight against the spread of disinformation. Two prominent Catholic academic institutions also publicly distanced themselves from the lectures.
The backlash reflects a broader tension: Pope Leo XIV has made confronting AI and its potential dangers a priority (even appointing an AI adviser!) and emphasizes the moral duty of governments to legislate the technology.
For Thiel, that kind of oversight is precisely the behavior he associates with creeping, Antichrist-flavored globalism.
What About Palantir?
The Antichrist that Thiel warns about is a force that uses surveillance and centralized control to dominate humanity. Which raises an uncomfortable question, critics point out: what exactly is Palantir?
Thiel co-founded the AI software company, which has extensive ties to the U.S. defense and intelligence communities and whose tools have powered mass data collection across multiple government agencies. Thiel’s skepts argue you can’t spend your time building the infrastructure of digital control and then warn everyone that digital control is the work of the Antichrist.
Benanti's essay makes a version of this same point in theological language: the values Thiel claims to defend have been so warped that his track record looks less like a warning against tyranny and more like a blueprint for it… just a privatized, tech-billionaire-friendly version.
What Does AI Mean for the Future?
Beneath the provocative headlines, there's a real argument happening about what the Antichrist looks like and what the future will bring.
Will technology serve humanity, or precipitate its downfall? And is AI a harbinger of the Antichrist – or are those fears overblown?
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