Podbit · All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Leo XIII's 1891 encyclical warned the Industrial Revolution would harm humanity. Since then, real wages rose 8–10x, global poverty fell from 75% to under 10%, child labor in the US dropped from 18% to zero, and the workweek shrank from 60+ hours to 34. Gurley says Leo XIV is making the exact same mistake.
Where this was said
At 25:00 · chapter starts 17:37
Jason walks through the key arguments of 'Magnifica Humanitas,' Pope Leo XIV's first encyclical: technology is never neutral, it mirrors the values of those who build and finance it, and AI risks concentrating power in the hands of a few. The Pope called for regulation, worker retraining, child safety guardrails, and a ban on autonomous weapons. [1] — Jason Calacanis "Pope's encyclical: 235 pages, 42,000 words: Pope Leo XIV's first encyclical on AI, 'Magnifica Humanitas,' ran 235 pages and over 42,000 wor…" 17:57 Notably, Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah was involved, despite being an atheist — and tech giants including Amazon, Google, and Meta lobbied the Vatican on April 29th to water down the language, without success. David Sacks steelmans the Pope's concern about centralization but pivots to a deeper warning: creating an AI regulator risks handing government the very power the Pope feared would fall to tech companies. He invokes the Latin principle quis custodiet ipsos custodes — who guards the guardians — and traces the American founders' separation of powers as a second-order answer to that timeless question. His preferred solution is a competitive market, not a regulatory body, as long as competition among five frontier labs is maintained.
Pope Leo XIV's 235-page encyclical 'Magnifica Humanitas' warns that technology takes on the characteristics of those who build, finance, and control it. Despite Amazon, Google, and Meta lobbying the Vatican to soften the language, the Pope held firm — calling for regulation and asking whether AI will serve humanity or concentrate power in the hands of a few.
Pope Leo XIV's first encyclical on AI, 'Magnifica Humanitas,' ran 235 pages and over 42,000 words — roughly the length of a full book.
Sacks argues the real AI centralization threat isn't a tech company — it's a government that gains the power to approve models and then expands its definition of 'safety' to include censorship. He invokes the Latin principle quis custodiet ipsos custodes: who guards the guardians?
Since Leo XIII's 1891 encyclical warning against the Industrial Revolution, the workweek fell from 60+ hours to 34 hours globally, and real wages rose 8–10x — proving the prior Pope's fears were misplaced.
Since 1891, technology and capitalism reduced global poverty from 75% of humanity to under 10%, while life expectancy rose 60% and child labor in the US fell from 18% to zero.
Kierkegaard lost five of six siblings and his mother before adulthood, grew up under a shame-ridden father, fell in love, proposed, then mailed back the ring and fled to Berlin. His inability to live up to his own most important commitment became the engine of his entire philosophical project.
Casanova escaped from Venice's inquisition prison, met Voltaire, Catherine the Great, Benjamin Franklin, and Mozart — then died completely alone in a Slovak castle, broke, telling stories to children who thought he was a crazy old man. His 2,000-page memoir sat unread for decades. A life full of fireworks that meant nothing.
Factories that replaced coal engines with electric ones in the early 1900s got only 6% efficiency gains. Those that redesigned their entire factory around electricity got a 3x productivity improvement. Swapping AI tools into your existing structure will give you 6%. Rebuilding around AI will give you 10x.
Lebanese terrorists backed by Iran were holding American hostages throughout the Reagan presidency. Reagan had loudly campaigned against negotiating with terrorists — putting him in an impossible position that his team quietly decided to ignore.
During the Iran-Iraq War, the US openly supplied Iraq with weapons, training, and intelligence. At the same time, Oliver North was secretly funneling missiles to Iran. The US was playing both sides of a shooting war.
Oliver North traveled to Iran under the alias 'William P. Goode' with a fake passport. CIA Director William Casey allegedly gave him cyanide pills so he could kill himself rather than be tortured if captured. He returned safely and the deal moved forward.
The Pentagon sold missiles to the CIA for $3,700 each. The CIA sold them to Richard Secord at cost. Secord sold them to Iranian middleman Ghorbanifar for $10,000 each. Ghorbanifar charged Iran even more. The profit — including $3 million in interest in one Swiss account — was diverted directly to fund the Nicaraguan Contras.
America secretly transferred 2,000 missiles and missile parts to Iran in 8 shipments over more than a year. Only 3 of 7 hostages were released. Three more were taken. The net result was zero freed hostages and a full-blown constitutional scandal.
On October 5, 1986, a CIA Contra supply plane flew a weapons drop at 2,500 feet in broad daylight. A Sandinista soldier shot it down. The only survivor, Eugene Hasenfuss, had borrowed a parachute from his skydiving brother. He was captured, paraded in front of cameras, and told the Sandinistas everything he knew.
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