Nigeria, May 25 -- Pope Leo XIV has urged world leaders to slow the pace of development of artificial intelligence systems, arguing that they have become instruments of war and misinformation.

In his encyclical, the first major text issued since the beginning of his papacy, the pontiff warned that AI systems are used to spread misinformation, prioritising conflicts which could lead the world into endless wars.

An encyclical is one of the pope's most important formal teaching documents to the Catholic Church. It is used to teach on matters of faith, morals, and social issues, and typically reveals the priorities of a pontificate to the 1.4 billion members of the Church.

Pope Leo's document, issued on Monday, is titled Magnifica Humanita...