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In Bari, on June 14, 2024, Pope Francis reminded heads of state and government attending the G7 summit of the dangers of artificial intelligence (AI) if it is not ordered toward the "common good." In his lengthy speech, he warned that it is urgent for world leaders to take "political action" to oversee this "extremely powerful tool."
The 87-year-old Pontiff flew by helicopter to Puglia to present the world's top leaders with a dense reflection on AI. It was Giorgia Meloni, the head of the Italian government, who urged him to bring the Holy See's call for AI ethics to this international summit.
Between two sessions of short bilateral meetings — the Pope met Presidents Macron (France), Zelensky (Ukraine), and Trudeau (Canada)— he took the floor to break down the mechanics of AI and try to convince those responsible for it of the need to act.
After greeting some 24 heads of state and government one by one — including Joe Biden (USA), Javier Milei (Argentina), and Narendra Modi (India) — the Pope took his place around the vast oval table between Giorgia Meloni and Emmanuel Macron.
An exciting and fearsome tool
Artificial intelligence is “an exciting and fearsome tool, and demands a reflection that is up to the challenge it presents," warned the Pope in the full version of his speech given to the participants. He stressed that "it goes without saying that the benefits or harm it will bring will depend on its use."
As an analogy, he points out that the discovery of flint tools by our ancestors was useful for everyday life, but they also used it “to kill each other." Similarly, nuclear fusion can both produce clean energy and "reduce our planet to a pile of ashes."
However, AI is "still more complex," warns the Pope, since it can "make choices independent of the person” who uses it, based specifically on "statistical inferences." For him, the most urgent need is to agree on a principle:
"Faced with the marvels of machines, which seem to know how to choose independently, we should be very clear that decision-making [...] must always be left to the human person. [...] Human dignity itself depends on it.”
At a time when killer robots are becoming a reality, the head of the Catholic Church calls for a ban on "lethal autonomous weapons" so that no machine can "ever choose to take the life of a human being."
Justice and education threatened by AI
In the field of justice, which could soon be invaded by statistics and probabilities, the Pope describes programs that are already aiming to help magistrates decide on the house arrest of prisoners serving a sentence. "[A]rtificial intelligence is asked to predict the likelihood of a prisoner committing the same crime(s) again. It does so based on predetermined categories (type of offense, behavior in prison, psychological assessment, and others)," he explains.
But "human beings are always developing, and are capable of surprising us by their actions," insists the Pope, who laments the fact that such a probabilistic method could come into use. He adds that algorithms have sometimes become so complex "that it is difficult for programmers themselves to understand exactly how they arrive at their results."
AI is also turning the world of education upside down, notes the Pope. He talks about the habits of students who use applications for "composing a text or producing an image." They forget, he says, that artificial intelligence is not really “generative," but “instead ‘reinforcing' in the sense that it rearranges existing content, helping to consolidate it, often without checking whether it contains errors or preconceptions." And he points in particular to the risk of fake news.
Politics is necessary
Faced with this risk of seeing the world lose the “profound meaning" of the human person, Pope Francis enjoins leaders to realize "that no innovation is neutral."
Echoing the terms of his Rome Call for AI Ethics — a 2020 text signed by companies such as IBM, Microsoft and Cisco — he calls on leaders to act to provide an ethical framework for AI.
"Politics is necessary!" he says forcefully. It is needed to create the conditions for the proper use of AI to be "possible and fruitful." At the G7 table, the Pope did not stray from his notes. But, looking up at the heads of state and government, he did add, "Politics is the highest form of charity, the highest form of love."
