Pope Warns Against AI Fuelling Conflict; Highlights Human Cost of Cobalt Mining in Africa
Pope Leo XIV, speaking at the Catholic University of Central Africa in Yaoundé, Cameroon on April 17, 2026, condemned the use of artificial intelligence to fuel "polarisation, conflict, fear and violence."
He warned that AI risks replacing reality with simulation, creating "impermeable bubbles" where people feel threatened by difference — a direct challenge to information ecosystems that reinforce extremism.
The Pope highlighted that the AI boom is substantially powered by cobalt extracted from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), with Africa bearing the environmental, social, and human cost of that mining.
The Vatican has separately backed an international initiative encouraging disinvestment from the mining sector and calling on companies to treat workers justly and protect local environments — supported by approximately 40 faith-based institutions.
The DRC has at various points suspended artisanal cobalt and copper processing as a response to unregulated extraction.
Cobalt and the Hidden Environmental Cost of AI
Artificial intelligence infrastructure — data centres, servers, and the devices that access them — is energy-hungry and mineral-intensive. Lithium-ion batteries and server hardware require cobalt, a mineral mined predominantly in the DRC.
Key Details
- The DRC holds approximately 70% of the world's cobalt reserves and produced 76% of global cobalt output in 2024 (U.S. Geological Survey).
- An estimated 40,000 children work in hazardous artisanal cobalt mines in the DRC — a severe child labour and human rights crisis.
- Artisanal and Small-scale Mining (ASM) contributes 20–25% of DRC cobalt production but carries the highest concentration of labour abuses, unsafe conditions, and traceability gaps.
- Environmental damage from cobalt mining includes water contamination, deforestation, biodiversity loss, and community displacement.
- AI data centres account for a rapidly growing share of global electricity consumption, driving demand for battery storage and associated critical minerals.
The Pope's remarks link AI's social harms (disinformation, polarisation) directly to its material harms (resource extraction), presenting both as ethical failures demanding governance response.
AI Governance: Global Frameworks and India's Approach
Regulating AI's negative impacts has become a central international policy challenge. Several governance frameworks now operate at national and multilateral levels.
The Pope's critique reinforces calls for binding AI governance globally — aligning with debates in India about how to regulate AI for social good without stifling innovation.
Critical Minerals: Supply Chain, Geopolitics, and Sustainability
Cobalt is classified as a critical mineral — essential for clean energy transition and digital infrastructure, but concentrated in politically fragile regions, creating supply chain vulnerabilities and ethical dilemmas.
The cobalt mining concern raised by the Pope is directly connected to global critical minerals governance debates, which are a growing Mains GS3 topic.
- DRC supplies approximately 70% of global cobalt reserves and 76% of global production (2024).
- An estimated 40,000 children work in DRC's artisanal cobalt mines.
- AI data centres globally consume over 200 TWh of electricity annually — a figure growing rapidly.
- EU AI Act (2024): first comprehensive binding AI regulation globally.
- India's Critical Minerals List (2023): 30 minerals identified, including cobalt.
- UNESCO Recommendation on the Ethics of AI (2021): first global AI ethics standard.
- The Vatican initiative to divest from harmful mining has backing from ~40 faith-based institutions.
- Pope's statement made at Catholic University of Central Africa, Yaoundé, Cameroon — April 17, 2026.