Douala, Cameroon - Pope Leo XIV on Friday warned that the AI boom could fuel "conflict, fear, and violence" while on a trip to Cameroon marked by his ongoing spat with President Donald Trump.

While Leo has called for caution on artificial intelligence several times since his election in May 2025, his latest warning comes as Trump faces a backlash over a now-deleted AI-generated post seemingly depicting the US leader as Jesus.

After holding Mass in the stifling heat in Cameroon's economic capital, Douala, for more than 120,000 joyous worshippers – the biggest event of his landmark Africa trip so far – the leader of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics sounded the alarm over the perils of the technology.

"The challenge posed by these systems is greater than it appears: it is not just about the use of new technologies, but about the gradual replacement of reality by its simulation," he said in a speech to teachers and students at the Catholic University of Central Africa in the capital Yaounde.

"In this way, polarisation, conflict, fear, and violence spread. What is at stake is not merely the risk of error, but a transformation in our very relationship with truth."

It marks the pontiff's latest outspoken intervention on his 11-day Africa tour that has seen him abandon his previous restraint to deliver impassioned pleas for world peace – and tussle with fellow American Trump.

After the pope criticized the US-Israeli war with Iran, Trump lashed out at Leo, branding him "weak on crime and terrible for foreign policy".

He then posted an AI-generated image seemingly depicting himself as a Christ-like figure, which he later deleted after religious leaders accused him of blasphemy.

And shortly after Leo denounced the "handful of tyrants" ravaging the world in a speech on Thursday, the president said the pope needed to understand the realities of a "nasty world".