The demands on today’s CISOs are intensifying from every direction. Rapid advances in AI, newly discovered and exploited vulnerabilities, escalating geopolitical conflicts, aggressive enterprise tech adoption and the looming arrival of quantum computing are all reshaping the threat landscape in real time.

Gary Brickhouse, CISO of cybersecurity firm GuidePoint Security, sees and hears about it all. I spoke with him about today’s real threat landscape—and what CIOs and CISOs aren’t paying attention to, but should be. An excerpt from our conversation is later in this newsletter.

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Artificial Intelligence

In a world where policymakers are hesitant to regulate AI or limit its uses, Pope Leo XIV boldly declared that AI, left unchecked, “threatens to normalize an anti-human vision.” In his first encyclical, published this week, the pope said governments need to slow down and closely regulate AI development before it does any more damage to humanity—sowing conflict, concentrating power in the hands of a few powerful tech companies and eroding human dignity.

The encyclical compares the AI economy to slavery and says it will create “second-class humans.” The pope warned that humanity faces a stark choice: either construct a new Tower of Babel—a reference to the Biblical story of humanity attempting to reach the heavens and rival the divine—or create a society in which God and humanity coexist. The encyclical’s title is “Magnifica Humanitas”—literally “Magnificent Humanity.” And the pope doubled down on his stance later in the week, warning that control of data and digital platforms should not be controlled by a small group of powerful actors—basically taking Silicon Valley to task against using technology to control humanity.

Reaction to the encyclical has been mixed. Anthropic cofounder and head of research Chris Olah was in Vatican City when the pope released his encyclical this week to share concurring remarks. He said every AI lab operates under pressures that “can sometimes conflict with doing the right thing,” and called for more thoughtfulness about the potential impacts of AI on society—and for leaders to exercise discernment to guide tech companies as they move forward. AI skeptics rejoiced on social media, with some non-Catholics embracing the power of the pontiff for the first time, writes Forbes senior contributor Dani Di Placido. Anti-AI memes starring Leo have appeared throughout social media—with several referencing the Butlerian Jihad in the Dune novels, in which humanity revolted against “thinking machines.”

The Trump Administration has had a more muted reaction.........

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