Unfortunately for Vance, the two are completely opposite forces. In one corner is Pope Leo XIV, the first American Pope with a decidedly pro-human agenda in the age of artificial intelligence; A Pope that should hold some real appeal for a politician who is actively marketing a book about his adult conversion to Catholicism. In the other corner is Thiel, a billionaire weirdo who has been lecturing on the Antichrist and has reportedly accused the Pope of being in league with a man empowered by Satan to cause the collapse of the global order – an oligarch who seems more invested in AI than the survival of humanity.
It seems like it should be a pretty easy choice, but one man is promised a kingdom in the afterlife, and the other promises a kingdom in this life, and Vance is confused about which he values more.
It is clear that he is feeling the pull from both sides.
The Pope recently released his encyclical on artificial intelligence, which focused on humanity and warned about the “risk of being misled by deceitful goals” that could arise from the “increasing dominance of the technological paradigm” (and provoked technocratic brethren with a reference to JRR Tolkien and a text on his works that directly conflicts with Thiel and Elon Musk’s interpretation of the author’s work).
Vance, speaking to NBC News, praised the Pope’s announcement. “What I read about it sounds very profound, and the kind of thing you expect and expect from a leader of the church,” he told the outlet. “The thing about ethics is that principles never change, but the way you apply those principles changes, because the world changes, right?” He credited Pope Leo XIV for recognizing that the world was changing and working to “rethink the entire Catholic social teaching in light of the new world we live in.”
This probably won’t sit particularly well with Thiel, who will have a hard time not feeling targeted by the Pope’s encyclical – and not just because he has a sense of persecution. A recent report from Letters from Leo, a publication that tracks the Pope, revealed that Thiel told Vance to ignore the Pope’s ethical advice, including the ethics of AI.
Thiel doesn’t need Vance if he has Trump, and it’s clear that Trump is far more flexible on AI issues – he recently rescinded an executive order to regulate AI models at the behest of the tech industry. But Vance seemed to be the man-in-waiting who would take over after Trump and reinforce all of Thiel’s favorite policies. Now both seem to be separating.
There’s no reason to believe Vance is left out in this regard – the pull of power is strong, and Thiel has a billion ways to put his finger on the scale. But maybe, just maybe, Vance is beginning to experience a real break from Trump’s world. “AI raises such profound questions about how we interact with each other, what kind of skills we need in the workforce, what kind of wars we will fight and how we will fight our wars,” the vice president told NBC. “I think we need moral leadership to really consider those questions, and the church is the best leader to do that.”
It already seems like his 2028 presidential bid is dead on arrival, and there aren’t really a lot of places for him to go, if not higher, to the vice presidency. So he may be considering abandoning ship and trying out true beliefs.
Unfortunately, Vance has more demons than he can handle, and a powerful force waits in the wings. She claims she has deleted Elon Musk’s exes from her phone for Lent and the change has made her feel “healthier”. His staff is posting on his behalf, but he plans to reinstall the app at some point in the future. “One of the cool things about social media is that it really exposes you to unfiltered raw opinion, and that’s one of the things I need to hear as a political leader,” he said. Jumping back into the cesspool of X can be enough to turn even the most faithful away from the light of God.
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