The Pope sees AI as an important challenge for humanity.
Vatican CITY:
Pope Francis will address G7 leaders on Friday on artificial intelligence, an unprecedented appearance that reflects the Vatican's growing interest in the new technology and its risks and benefits.
The 87-year-old will become the first head of the Catholic Church to address a G7 summit when he speaks to an audience including US President Joe Biden and France's Emmanuel Macron on the second day of the meeting in Puglia.
The aging head of a 2,000-year-old institution may not be the most obvious candidate to give a presentation on cutting-edge technology, but the Pope sees AI as a key challenge for humanity.
“The Church always considers the human being at the center of her mission,” said Paolo Benanti, a Franciscan university professor and member of the UN AI advisory body, which directly advises the pope.
“From this perspective, it is clear that the AI that interests the Church is not the technical instrument, but how the instrument can impact human life,” he told AFP.
AI was the theme of the Church's World Day of Peace on January 1, for which the Pope published a six-page document.
In it, he welcomed advances in science and technology that have reduced human suffering – and Benanti said AI could act as a “multiplier” and boost everything from medical research to economic and social well-being.
But the pope also warned of risks such as disinformation and election interference, and that unequal access could increase social and economic inequality.
Francis – who has himself been the subject of several AI-generated images, including a viral image of himself wearing a huge white puffer coat and a large crucifix – called for a binding international treaty to regulate the development and use of AI .
The aim would be to prevent harm and share good practices.
'People-oriented approach'
Since the launch of OpenAI's ChatGPT chatbot, whose capabilities range from processing complex text to writing poems and computer code, governments have scrambled to respond to the rapid growth of AI.
The European Union – which attends G7 summits as the unofficial eighth member – adopted the world's first comprehensive rules for managing AI earlier this year.
At the global level, G7 leaders in Japan last year announced a working group on the 'responsible' use of AI, which would tackle issues from copyright to disinformation.
Host country Italy has made AI a key topic at this year's summit, which will focus on a “human-centered approach”, particularly its potential impact on employment, a government source said.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said in April that the pope's presence would “make a decisive contribution to defining a regulatory, ethical and cultural framework.”
The Vatican has brought in a range of experts to help boost understanding, including Demis Hassabis, head of Google DeepMind, whom it appointed to its scientific academy in March.
In 2020 it also launched the Call for AI Ethics, backed by technology companies Microsoft and IBM and later Cisco, as well as numerous universities and the UN, aimed at promoting an ethical approach.
The pope's speech on Friday will likely call for “attention to the most vulnerable,” said Eric Salobir, a French priest and head of the executive committee of the Human Technology Foundation.
It would be a call for G7 leaders to “take into account the risks and draw up regulations without being alarmist”, he told AFP.
No Vatican technology
Francis, who has stood up for the poorest and most marginalized people in society since taking office in 2013, has warned that AI offers new freedoms but also the risk of a “technological dictatorship.”
He warned of the dangers of using AI to make important decisions – from social benefits to where to aim autonomous weapons – for which responsibility is blurring.
“The Pope seems to have a kind of antenna that allows him to perceive where humanity is experiencing the situations that pose the greatest challenge to itself,” Benanti said.
But will G7 leaders listen to the Pope?
Salobir, author of a book 'God and Silicon Valley', says that in addition to his influence as a spiritual leader, the pope also has power as a neutral observer.
“The fact that there is no 'Vatican Tech' is a plus in terms of neutrality – the Church has no hidden agenda, no digital economy, no 'start-up nation' to launch, or investment to attract” , he said.
As a result, when the Vatican talks about AI, “it's about the technology itself, about what it can do for people,” he said.
“It may be one of the few states in this situation.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Our staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
