JD Vance caught between Pope Leo's AI stance and Silicon Valley's Peter Thiel

Pope Leo's encyclical calling for restraints on artificial intelligence has sparked a fierce reaction in Silicon Valley. The backlash has put US Vice President JD Vance in an awkward position, torn between his Catholic faith and his close ties to tech billionaire Peter Thiel.

US Vice President JD Vance faces a growing ideological dilemma as a papal encyclical calling for limits on artificial intelligence has triggered a fierce backlash among Silicon Valley's most powerful figures — including Peter Thiel, one of Vance's closest political and financial allies.

Faith Meets Tech Ideology

Pope Leo's encyclical, which calls for meaningful human oversight and ethical restraints on AI development, has been met with open hostility in parts of the American tech world. For Vance, a convert to Catholicism who has spoken at length about his faith shaping his worldview, dismissing the Pope's guidance would carry significant political and personal costs.

Thiel, the billionaire venture capitalist and co-founder of PayPal and Palantir, has long championed an accelerationist vision of technology — one that chafes against precisely the kind of regulatory or moral frameworks that the Vatican is now advocating. His influence on Vance's political career has been substantial, making the tension between the two camps all the more pointed.

A Defining Political Test

The clash is emerging as a test case for the broader conflict within the American right between its Catholic traditionalist wing and its Silicon Valley libertarian faction — two constituencies that have found common cause in recent years but are increasingly at odds over the future of technology and its governance. Vance, who sits at the crossroads of both worlds, has yet to take a clear public position on the papal document.

Observers note that how Vance navigates this rift could signal which coalition ultimately holds greater sway over the direction of the Trump administration's technology policy — and over Vance's own political future as a likely 2028 presidential contender.