Tech executives pitch large language models as oracles of reason. Yet a fresh wave of scrutiny from unlikely quarters suggests these systems operate more like vessels of belief than instruments of fact. Pope Leo XIV issued a 40,000-word encyclical in Latin last month that questions whether current AI trajectories uphold human dignity. At the same time, researchers tied to religious universities released data showing the models systematically sidestep faith-based perspectives in responses to ethical queries. The Register first highlighted the tension in an opinion column that framed the parallel bluntly. Rupert Goodwins argued there that LLMs generate answers from internal representations detached from observable reality. Much like scriptural interpretations that demand leaps of inference, the models produce coherent but unverifiable outputs. Both systems, he noted, thrive on trained corpora that shape every subsequent claim. Short observation. The comparison lands.…