Pope Francis calls for global ban on AI weapons

The dangers of artificial intelligence were again the subject of remarks by Pope Francis as he addressed world leaders Friday at the annual G7 summit in Puglia, Italy.

During his speech, Francis called on governments around the world to ban the use of AI in war and develop an ethical framework for the technology, emphasizing the need for collaboration to guide its development and implementation. use.

“In light of the tragedy of armed conflict, there is an urgent need to reconsider the development and use of devices such as so-called 'lethal autonomous weapons' and ultimately ban their use,” he said. declared the Pope. “It starts with an effective and concrete commitment to ever greater and appropriate human control.

“No machine should ever choose to take the life of a human being,” he said.

The head of the Catholic Church has repeatedly used his platform to address AI following the explosive 2022 launch of ChatGPT and the subsequent rise of AI into the mainstream, previously calling it a “high-stakes bet the highest of our future.

Himself at the center of several viral AI-generated images and videos, including one depicting him wearing a puffy white Balenciaga jacket, Pope Francis has recognized the growing power of AI in politics, medicine and education .

Calling AI a “true cognitive-industrial revolution” that could bring about a complex historical transformation, Pope Francis nevertheless warned that the technology could also lead to greater injustice between advanced and developing countries, or between dominant and oppressed social classes.

Technology is not infallible, the Pontiff said.

“It is a frequent and serious mistake to forget that artificial intelligence is not another human being and that it cannot propose general principles,” François said. “This error arises either from the deep need of human beings for a stable form of companionship or from a subconscious assumption, namely the assumption that observations obtained by means of a computational mechanism are endowed with qualities of certainty incontestable and of incontestable universality. »

The pope also addressed what he called the “techno-human condition” and humanity’s relationship with technology throughout history.

“Human beings have always maintained a relationship with the environment mediated by the tools that they have gradually produced,” he said. “It is not possible to separate the history of men and women and of civilization from the history of these tools. »

The Pope emphasized that technology can be used both to sustain life and to destroy it, and said that in the future, artificial intelligence will reach the singularity.

“This is all the more true since it is very likely that, in the not-so-distant future, artificial intelligence programs will be able to communicate directly with each other to improve their performance,” he believes.

The singularity refers to a time when computers and artificial intelligence were advancing beyond human control.

“And if once the men and women who made simple tools saw their lives shaped by them – the knife allowed them to survive the cold but also to develop the art of war – now that human beings have fashioned complex tools , they will see their lives are all the more shaped by them,” the Pope said.

Pope Francis is among the most prominent voices in the global chorus advocating a more cautious approach to AI. Last summer, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said such warnings should be taken seriously.

“The alarm bells about the latest form of artificial intelligence, generative AI, are deafening, and they are mostly coming from the developers who designed it,” Guterres said at a press conference.

While Francis expressed concern about generative AI, he also highlighted its creative potential for humanity.

“The Holy Scriptures attest that God has bestowed his Spirit on human beings so that they may have ‘skill, understanding and knowledge in all crafts,’” Francis said. “Science and technology are therefore brilliant products of the creative potential of human beings. Indeed, artificial intelligence is born precisely from the use of this creative potential given by God.