Meeting where one in every of two atomic bombs that ended World War II landed in Hiroshima, Japan, causing mass death and devastation, representatives from 11 diverse religious traditions gathered July 9-10 for a Vatican-sponsored event to deal with a latter-day technology also destined, many imagine, to upend humanity: artificial intelligence.
Rather than deal with AI’s potential apocalyptic threat, the participants emphasized how this momentous scientific achievement could possibly contribute to constructing a more ethical world and construct peace.
More than 150 people from 13 countries attended the two-day event, which concluded with a signing ceremony of the Rome Call for AI Ethics, a document that lays out principles of transparency, inclusion, accountability, impartiality, reliability and privacy.
The document was drafted before the COVID-19 pandemic by the Pontifical Academy for Life and the Italian government, which collaborated with tech firms which can be on the frontier of AI development, including Microsoft and IBM. The document has since been signed and supported by dozens of universities and other tech firms that agreed to share their insights and knowledge to further a responsible use of AI.
The Church of England, influential Jewish rabbis and Muslim leaders also joined the decision for an ethical approach to big data and AI.
At the memorial park in Hiroshima, Eastern leaders from Buddhist, Hindu, Zoroastrian and Bahá’à traditions got here together for what the Vatican described as a “historic multireligious event.”
“I ask you to indicate the world that we’re united in asking for a proactive commitment to guard human dignity on this recent era of machine,” Pope Francis wrote in a message read by Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Academy for Life, which under this pontificate has expanded its scope to incorporate issues that impact all facets of human life, from technology to palliative care to migration.
Paglia asked that AI, which he described as “an important tool with unlimited possibilities of application,” grow to be “a driver of peace and reconciliation amongst peoples.” His words were echoed by Sheikh Abdallah Bin Bayyah, president of the Abu Dhabi Forum for Peace and chair of the United Arab Emirates Council for Fatwa, who invoked “a future during which the fruits of technology are harnessed to construct a more tolerant, peaceful and virtuous world.”
Rabbi Eliezer Simcha Weiss, a member of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel’s Commission for Interfaith Relations, added, “AI strengthens our faith in God, providing avenues for exploring the intricacies of creation and the mysteries of existence.”
Francis’ adviser for AI, the Rev. Paolo Benanti, presented a second document, the “Hiroshima Appeal,” which urges world leaders to make use of the technology for peace and to resolve conflicts for a cessation of all violence.
Getting Muslim and Jewish representatives to sit down together on the table was no easy feat, said the Rev. Paolo Ciucci, a Catholic priest who works on AI issues on the Vatican who attended and helped coordinate the event, in an interview on Thursday (July 18).
“What’s vital is that everybody agreed to participate,” Ciucci said.
“If we sit all the way down to discuss theology amongst religions we’ll never get out of it alive,” he added, “but when we do something for the betterment of humanity we are able to all sit on the table.”
Ciucci works alongside 150 scientists and experts on the Academy for Life attempting to infuse an ethical sense into the rapidly developing field of AI. He can be the secretary general of RenAIssance, a foundation whose temporary is to advertise the Rome Call for AI Ethics amongst leaders in the sphere of AI.
Francis has launched a strong effort to deal with the subject within the church, sending priests to debate AI with engineers from Silicon Valley to Nairobi, Kenya, and exploiting formal and informal channels.
With his ironed black shirt and white collar, Ciucci said he stands out in a crowd of developers and programmers who often ask him what a Catholic priest is doing in conferences about algorithms and large data. At a conference called AI for Good, held every yr in Geneva, IBM’s AI Ethics Global Leader Francesca Rossi walked as much as Ciucci and asked: “Excuse me, why are you here?”
Ciucci published a book answering that query in 2022. “We tackle AI because we imagine that technology typically, but this one especially, influences the lives of human beings. Since we care about humanity we’re here,” he explained.
No technology is neutral, Ciucci said. It is as much as people to be sure that culture, society and economics don’t create inherent biases. AI, he said, challenges the query of what it means to be human, and as “an agency that’s an authority of the flesh,” the Catholic Church has lots to supply to experts in the sphere.
IBM was among the many first signatories of the Rome Call, and the corporate has supported the Vatican’s outreach to universities across the globe. “Everything within the document is just not written from the standpoint of 1 specific religion nevertheless it has a human-centric approach and values which can be shared by the Catholic religions and other religions,” Rossi told Religion News Service in an interview Wednesday.
Rossi, who serves on quite a few boards focused on AI ethics, said technology firms’ clients are increasingly asking for reassurance that AI doesn’t violate bias, discrimination or privacy norms. “Technology can and needs to be used to assist human progress, not the opposite way around,” she said.
Rossi said the Hiroshima gathering, despite being held in a spot haunted by almost unimaginable violence, was focused on peace. “The people of Hiroshima turned the narrative around,” she said, adding that the signatories of the Rome Call hope to do the identical for AI.
The Vatican guarantees to proceed being a voice for an ethical use for AI, centered on the promotion of peace. Summits with international organizations and events for the five-year anniversary of the Rome Call are already within the works, hinting on the Vatican’s and Pope Francis’ determination to be sure that AI becomes an instrument for good.
© Religion News Service
