lawsuit<\/a> with Donald Trump\u2019s administration over the ethics of AI.<\/p>\nEncyclicals are one of the highest forms of teaching from a pope to the Catholic church\u2019s 1.4 billion members, and typically outline his priorities while highlighting the major issues in society.<\/p>\n
In the document, called Magnifica Humanitas (Magnificent Humanity), Leo, who was born in Chicago and is the first US-born pope, referred to \u201ca troubling revival of war as an instrument of international politics\u201d and said AI was helping to facilitate the \u201cnormalisation of war\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor this reason, the development and use of AI in warfare must be subject to the most rigorous ethical constraints, to guarantee respect for human dignity and the sanctity of life and to avoid a race to develop such arms,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
Leo urged the \u201cdisarming\u201d of AI, while stating that some autonomous weapons systems are \u201cpractically beyond any human reach\u201d to control.<\/p>\n
\u201cDisarming AI means freeing it from the mentality of \u2018armed\u2019 competition,\u201d he wrote. \u201cTo disarm does not mean rejecting technology, but preventing it from dominating humanity,\u201d adding that the technology should be \u201chuman-friendly\u201d, accessible to all and opened to discussion and debate.<\/p>\n
In a passage that appeared to be targeted at Silicon Valley, the pope warned that power over digital systems, infrastructure and data \u201cdoes not rest with states but with major economic and technological actors\u201d, and that when such power was concentrated \u201cin the hands of the few\u201d it tended to \u201cbecome opaque and evade public oversight, increasing the risk of distorted forms of development that give rise to new dependencies, exclusions, manipulations and inequalities\u201d.<\/p>\n
The pope listens to the Vatican secretary of state Pietro Parolin during the presentation of the encyclical. Photograph: Alessandra Tarantino\/AP<\/p>\n
Olah said on Monday that the development of AI cannot be left solely to technology companies, urging greater oversight from religious leaders, governments and civil society.<\/p>\n
Olah, who was sitting alongside the pope, said there was \u201ca real possibility\u201d that AI would displace human labour \u201cat very large scale\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf that happens, supporting those displaced will be a moral imperative of historic proportions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Companies like his operated \u201cinside a set of incentives and constraints\u201d, such as under strong commercial, geopolitical and personal pressures, that can sometimes conflict with \u201cdoing the right thing\u201d for the broader interests of society, therefore making outside scrutiny essential.<\/p>\n
Leo, whose family history includes both enslaved people and enslavers, wrote on slavery: \u201cIt is impossible not to feel deep sorrow when contemplating the immense suffering and humiliation endured by so many in stark contrast to their immeasurable dignity as persons infinitely loved by the Lord \u2026 For this, in the name of the church, I sincerely ask for pardon.\u201d<\/p>\n
Past popes have apologised for Christians\u2019 involvement in the transatlantic slave trade. But no pope has ever publicly acknowledged, much less apologised for, the role that popes themselves played in giving European sovereigns explicit authority to subjugate and enslave \u201cinfidels\u201d.<\/p>\n
Alongside two of his cardinals, others at the presentation included the theologians Anna Rowlands and L\u00e9ocadie Lushombo.<\/p>\n
Christopher Olah, co-founder of Anthropic, speaks on Monday during the presentation of Pope Leo XIV\u2019s first encyclical. Photograph: Alessandra Tarantino\/AP<\/p>\n
Rowlands, professor of Catholic social thought at Durham University, said the encyclical \u201cbrings the vision of the Gospel to bear on the cultures of AI\u201d, and in doing so \u201cwarns of a growing culture of power that is reshaping work, family, education, and political life\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Vatican has been seriously engaged on questions surrounding AI for several years now, including having regular dialogues with Microsoft, Google and other big technology firms.<\/p>\n
The pope said on Monday that the Catholic church wanted to work with AI developers to discuss proper use of the technology.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat Leo has done in this document is put the full weight of his office behind the Catholic church\u2019s efforts to be in dialogue with big tech,\u201d said Christopher White, the author of Pope Leo XIV: Inside the Conclave and the Dawn of a New Papacy and a senior fellow at Georgetown University\u2019s Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s clearly approaching AI from a position of humility and making it clear that the church doesn\u2019t have all of the answers when it comes to what sort of policies are necessary for AI regulation. But he is being clear-eyed that AI development can\u2019t simply be the wild west like some of its advocates would like to see.\u201d<\/p>\n
In reaction to the encyclical, Christine Allen, CEO and director of the Catholic aid charity Cafod, said the pope\u2019s message spoke of the \u201cinherent dignity of humankind\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are not simply instruments of production but living beings, entrusted with a moral compass,\u201d she added. \u201cIn a world full of imbalances, we have a duty to use AI responsibly. Today\u2019s message is that it should not be used to further exacerbate inequality and suffering.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pope Leo has denounced the \u201cculture of power\u201d driving the rapid rise of artificial intelligence while warning that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":693824,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[256,254,255,64,63,105],"class_list":["post-693823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=693823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693823\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/693824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=693823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=693823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=693823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}