Pope Leo XIV said concerns expressed by tech industry leaders over the catastrophic risks to humanity posed by artificial intelligence are not “fake news” and “should be taken seriously”. Source: NCR Online.
Asked about the seriousness of claims that AI could seriously destroy or even wipe out humanity, which have been dismissed by some tech executives and United States President Donald Trump, the Pope said that “to simply say, ‘Oh it’s not going to happen,’ and close our eyes to it is probably not the most responsive way to go about that”.
The Pope said it is not “fake news, as some have said, to try and cause whether financial or some other kind of a benefit”.
“This is a problem that we need to sit down and talk about,” Pope Leo said yesterday during his airborne press conference on his return flight to Rome following a four-day visit to France.
During that trip, the Pope said that society must work to ensure AI serves humanity and does not become “another instrument of domination and injustice”.
While US government officials have dismissed concerns over the risks posed to humanity over AI – Mr Trump called efforts to regulate AI part of a “globalist scheme” in his address to the United Nations last week – the Pope said that “we can’t just sit back and pretend that nothing is going to happen”.
Yet he said he remains “relatively optimistic” that tech companies can put in place guardrails to avoid losing control of AI entirely.
“If someone would ask me, ‘Am I in panic mode?’ No, I’m not, I sleep at night,” Pope Leo said.
The Pope added that through the Vatican’s coordination with tech leaders, he is confident there are enough people willing to engage with AI development “outside of the questions of power and ‘who gets there first’ and ‘what happens when Al goes to being what they call general artificial intelligence,’ etc”.
Despite that, “we need to continue to invite political leaders, the leaders of AI, social organisations, associations, to come together and look at what is happening already and what could be down the road”, he said.
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Pope Leo says alarm over AI is not ‘fake news,’ but remains optimistic (By Justin McLellan, NCR Online)
