Recently, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff warned investors to avoid the “false prophets” of AI. Now, the Pope has brought real theological weight to the bot debate, hosting a Vatican seminar that called for global AI regulation and fair distribution of the technology’s benefits.
The seminar [PDF] – dubbed Digital Rerum Novarum: Artificial Intelligence for Peace, Social Justice, and Integral Human Development – was organized by the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences together with the University of Notre Dame.
The newly installed, American-born Pope Leo XIV, said, in a message to the attendees, that while it has great potential, AI poses deep questions, not least how to create a “more authentically just and human global society.”
More bluntly, he quoted his predecessor to remind his flock, that “While undoubtedly an exceptional product of human genius, AI is ‘above all else a tool.'”
According to Vatican news, participants highlighted the need to align disparate AI regulation initiatives “under a shared global framework – one that is binding, includes mechanisms for enforcement, and is supported by institutions suited to the digital age.”
Other key themes include environmental sustainability and reducing the energy consumption of datacenters. And “The future of work was examined through the lens of technological social justice, calling for cooperation among workers, employers, scientists, and governments to ensure a fair distribution of the benefits of AI.”
Suggested solutions include universal basic income and basic capital, as well as ways to treat technological progress as a global social good.
All of which are perennial Silicon Valley talking points. Though the Church as been talking far longer about rich people, camels, and the eye of needle.
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Other sessions included: Governing the Risks of AI as a Weapon, AI and Cognitive Integrity, and Business Ethics in AI Development. (Camels and needles again)
There was just one Cardinal and a smattering of Monsignors on the speaker list, which included academics from the likes of Harvard, Notre Dame, Princeton, and MIT in the US, as well as European and Latin American institutions, assorted NGOs, think tanks, and political types.
As for vendors, Microsoft’s Jaron Lanier spoke in a session on The Future of AI Technologies, as did Heather Domin from HCL Tech. However senior people from Google, Meta, and Apple et al were nowhere to seen.
We’re sure their absence has nothing to do with the fact that the Vatican hosted the 15th International Gathering of the International Association of Exorcists just a few weeks ago. ®
