Leo XIV on AI: "Its future depends on the choices we make"
Audience with participants in a meeting of the Pontifical Academy for Life and the Future of Life Institute. His appeal to States: concrete steps to ban lethal autonomous weapons.
Pope Leo XIV this morning received, in the Apostolic Palace, participants in the meeting promoted by the Pontifical Academy for Life and the Future of Life Institute: "The future of AI: a dialogue between the Vatican and the scientific world on the developments and applications of intelligent technologies" (our translation of the Italian title). The Pope spoke in English.
The future is not pre-determined. "First, the future of artificial intelligence is not pre-determined. As a technology developed by human beings, its future depends on the choices we make. We therefore have the responsibility to guide, change and, when necessary, reject its applications." The decisive question, he said, "is not simply 'What can AI do?' but rather, 'What purpose should it serve?'"
Tools, not persons. Citing the encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, the Pope said that "machines are tools, not persons," and warned against granting AI rights or legal personhood.
Decisions not to delegate. "Decisions affecting human life, freedom and the use of force must always remain subject to effective, informed and responsible human oversight." He added: "I encourage the States meeting in Geneva in November to take concrete steps toward banning lethal autonomous weapons." According to Vatican News, this is the Seventh Review Conference of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, 16-20 November at the Palais des Nations. The Pope also recalled Francis's words at the G7 on 14 June 2024: no machine should ever choose to take the life of a human being.
Common good and institutions. Technologies, he said, must be directed toward the common good and never serve "merely the interests of a privileged few." What is needed are institutions, particularly effective international institutions, able to put these principles into practice, with "shared standards, independent oversight and clear mechanisms of accountability."
Sources: Holy See Press Office (Bulletin), vatican.va (English text), Vatican News
Source: Vatican News