World Day of Peace: The Pope worries about artificial intelligence

The Catholic Church already has a handbook on how to deal ethically with artificial intelligence. Now the Pope is taking on the issue himself. On the Catholic World Day of Peace 2024, his speech will be entitled “Artificial Intelligence and Peace”. World Peace Day is also New Year’s Day, and the content of the speech is usually announced well in advance.

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According to Vatican News, Pope Francis calls for “an open dialogue about the importance of this new technology, which is endowed with disruptive potential and ambivalent effects”. The Pope also recalled “the need to be vigilant and to work to ensure that the production and use of such devices does not result in a logic of violence and discrimination at the expense of the weakest and marginalized,” the message says. “Injustice and inequality fueled conflict and antagonism.” Of course, Pope Francis also warns that technology must be used responsibly in order to use it for the benefit of mankind.

The Catholic Church is involved in the field of AI

However, the Holy See is involved at various levels in order to develop “algorethics”, a portmanteau of algorithms and ethics. As early as 2020, the Pontifical Academy published the “Rome Call for AI Ethics”, which was signed by Microsoft and IBM as well as parts of the Italian government. It contains six principles for dealing ethically with AI. These are: Transparency of how AI systems work. Inclusion means that the systems should not be discriminatory – which is known to be a problem with AI models. Just like the bias that the church would like to have prevented. Responsibilities must be clarified and the systems should be reliable. The Catholic Church also sees security and privacy as a condition for dealing ethically with AI.

The Vatican’s commitment in this regard is also constant in international organizations such as the United Nations, writes Vatican News, which highlights the risks of misusing AI in armaments and in conflicts.

There is also a manual from the Vatican and the Roman Catholic Church that deals with responsible use of AI. The principles from the call are also listed here. The Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at the University of Santa Clara in California was also involved in the creation of the guide, entitled “Ethics in the Age of Disruptive Technologies”. The publication came out while the AI ​​Act was being voted on at EU level. The manual is not aimed at politicians, but at companies that work with AI.

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