Huang tells Fortune Pope Leo is asking the right questions on AI safety

The exchange follows a public back-and-forth that began in late September, when Pope Leo XIV told reporters at a press conference that fears AI could destroy the world are not "fake news" — an apparent rebuke of President Donald Trump, who had told the UN General Assembly the previous week that he believed such fears were a "hoax." The pope then directly criticized Huang, saying he was skeptical of Nvidia's AI guardrails announcement because Huang has argued there should be no limits and no government regulation.

Huang had already told CBS News earlier this month that he agreed with Trump that AI safety concerns were overblown. Against that backdrop, his comments to Fortune read as a partial de-escalation: he said he was unsure what the pope meant but described the pope's questions as correct, and argued that Nvidia's open-source safety technology and its work on audit, governance and standards-setting mean few are doing as much for AI safety.

Huang also framed the disagreement as one of emphasis — hypothetical incidents versus those that have already happened — and said he shares common ground with the pope on wanting an optimistic future for the technology, pursued with responsibility, safety and accountability. The pope, who has warned of AI's dangers throughout his 16-month papacy, has urged the world "to promote dialogue, study, investigation" on the technology, a formula Huang indicated he looks forward to seeing.