Experts on Artificial Intelligence met on the Vatican on Thursday to debate the implications of this ascendant technology — which Pope Francis hopes to inject with Christian morals and ethics — while calling for international regulation.
“What has happened prior to now 70 years is that society is guided by software,” said Fr. Paolo Benanti, a Franciscan and a theologian who advises Pope Francis on questions of AI, during his speech on the Vatican event.
“Whoever has the software, has the ability,” added Benanti, who can also be a member of the United Nations’ AI Advisory Body.
The conference, titled “Algorithm on the Service of Man: Communicating within the Time of Artificial Intelligence,” is the newest in a lot of events organized by the Vatican to handle growing concerns over AI and its applications.
Through formal and informal channels, the Vatican and Pope Francis have created networks in Silicon Valley and made connections with major players within the fields of technology and communications to advertise an ethical approach to AI. In January, Francis made AI the central theme of his message for World Day of Peace, and in June he became the primary pontiff to attend a G7 meeting where he spoke concerning the ethical ramifications of AI.
Speaking to the leaders of the U.S., U.K., Italy, France, Canada, Germany and Japan, the pope said that while AI represents “a real cognitive-industrial revolution,” the ultimate say must “at all times be left to the human person.”
Francis spoke about machine learning and AI again in his public message for the World Day of Social Communication, where he warned of AI’s ability to “pollute” our understanding of reality through fake news and deep-fake images. The pope mentioned he was also a victim of the highly realistic AI replicas that may be quick to go viral online.
The world is at a crossroads, he said, where unregulated AI risks furthering discrimination, polarization and injustice. “On one hand we face the specter of a latest slavery, on the opposite of delivering freedom; on one hand there’s the chance that a couple of will condition the thoughts of many, on the opposite that everybody may participate in elaborating our beliefs,” Francis said.
The pope’s message was the inspiring document for the Vatican conference on Thursday, where experts spoke concerning the power that influential financial interests can have in shaping the long run of AI.
“The great tech producers are infusing our computers with artificial intelligence,” Benanti said concerning the increasing presence and agency of AI in on a regular basis devices. “This is a challenge that we aren’t yet prepared for,” he added.
The vice director general of Italy’s Agency for National Cybersecurity, Nunzia Ciardi, also warned on the conference of the influence held by leading AI developers.
“Artificial intelligence is made up of massive economic investments that only large superpowers can afford and thru which they ensure an important geopolitical dominance and access to the massive amount of information that AI must process to provide outputs,” Ciardi said.
“You could say that we’re colonized by AI, which is managed by select corporations that brutally rack through our data,” she added.
Participants agreed that international organizations must implement stronger regulations for the use and advancement of AI technologies.
“We need guardrails, because what’s coming is a radical transformation that can change real and digital relations and require not only reflection but in addition regulation,” Benanti said.
The “Rome Call for AI Ethics,” a document signed by IBM, Microsoft, Cisco and U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization representatives, was promoted by the Vatican’s Academy for Life and lays out guidelines for promoting ethics, transparency and inclusivity in AI.
Other religious communities have also joined the “Rome Call,” including the Anglican Church and Jewish and Muslim representatives. On July 9, representatives from Eastern religions will gather for a Vatican-sponsored event to sign the “Rome Call” in Hiroshima, Japan. The location was decided to emphasise the harmful consequences of technology when unchecked.
Speaking to participants at one other Vatican conference focused on AI on June 22, Pope Francis challenged attendants to rethink the best way we define artificial intelligence.
“Are we sure we would like to proceed calling ‘intelligence’ that which shouldn’t be intelligent?” he asked, inviting participants to “ask ourselves whether the misuse of this word that’s so vital, so human, shouldn’t be already a give up to technocratic power.”
© Religion News Service
