Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has responded to criticism from Pope Leo XIV over AI safety and regulation, saying the pontiff is raising necessary and important questions, while defending the chipmaker's efforts to make AI a safe and positive technology for society.

“He's asking all the right questions, and he's thinking about all the right issues,” Huang told Fortune in an interview on Wednesday, when asked about the pope's remarks. “I'm looking forward to seeing them.”

The pope made his earlier comments at a press conference in late September. He told reporters that concerns AI could destroy the world are not “fake news” and should be taken seriously — an apparent rebuke to President Donald Trump, who had told the UN General Assembly the previous week that he believed fears about AI's dangers were a “hoax.”

Pope Leo also directly criticized Huang, saying he was skeptical of Nvidia's announcement about AI guardrails because Huang has argued there should be no limits and no government regulation. Earlier this month, Huang told CBS News that he agreed with Trump that AI safety concerns were overblown. Nvidia has separately launched a software platform aimed at stopping AI agents from breaching containment. The exchange carries weight across the technology industry: Nvidia's chips power much of the world's AI development, making Huang's stance on safety and regulation closely watched well beyond his own company.

Speaking to Fortune, Huang said he was unsure what the pope meant, but defended Nvidia's record. “I'm not exactly sure what was intended, but the facts are that few are doing as much in advancing AI safety in a way that helps the entire industry as we are,” he said.

He pointed to Nvidia's open-source safety technology, its work on a framework for improving the quality of companies, and its efforts on audit, governance, and standards-setting. “We are doing as much as we can, and the things that we're doing are going to dramatically help,” he said.

Huang argued that such tools would have helped in incidents that have already occurred. “We can always talk about hypothetical incidents that have not happened, but as an engineer, we should develop the technology and methodologies and practices to deal with the incidents that have happened,” he said.

He also said he shared common ground with some of the pope's concerns. “We all care about the same thing, which is an optimistic future where this technology has great positive impact in society while doing it with great responsibility, safety, and accountability,” Huang said.

The pope, who has warned of the dangers of AI throughout his 16-month papacy, urged the world “to promote dialogue, study, investigation” regard to the technology. Leo XIV, the first American-born pope, has said he chose his name in homage to Leo XIII — the pontiff who confronted the first Industrial Revolution — citing artificial intelligence as the hallmark of a comparable era of technological change.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com.