Pope warns of potential dangers from AI

Pope Francis on Friday warned of the potential dangers from artificial intelligence (AI).

Addressing a session dedicated to AI, Pope Francis underlined that AI signifies “a true cognitive-industrial revolution” which will lead to “complex epochal transformations,” according to the official Vatican News agency.

Acknowledging that the transformations have the potential to be beneficial by democratizing the access to knowledge, advancing the scientific research, and reducing the demanding and arduous work, Francis also pointed out the possible negative consequences such as causing the greater injustice between advanced and developing nations or between dominant and oppressed social classes.

The pope also underlined that the algorithms used by artificial intelligence to arrive at choices are “neither objective nor neutral.”

“Algorithms can only examine realities formalized in numerical terms,” Francis said.

Furthermore, he emphasised that AI is always shaped by the worldview of those who invented and developed it.

“Against this background, what is needed is the development of an algor-ethics, a series of global and pluralistic principles which are capable of finding support from cultures, religions, international organizations and major corporations,” the pope remarked.