Pope Francis travelled to the region of Puglia, in southern Italy, on June 14 to participate in the G7 summit, an annual event that brings together leaders from the 7 most advanced economies in the world.
Below is Pope Francis’ full speech on Artificial Intelligence: “Artificial intelligence is a fascinating and tremendous instrument.”
I address you today, leaders of the G7 Intergovernmental Forum, with a reflection on the effects of artificial intelligence on the future of humanity.
Holy Scripture attests that God has given men his Spirit so that they may have “skill, talent, and experience in the execution of all kinds of work” ( Ex 35:31).” Science and technology are, therefore, an extraordinary product of the creative potential that human beings possess.
Now, artificial intelligence originates precisely from the use of this creative potential that God has given us.
Such artificial intelligence, as we know, is an extremely powerful instrument, which is used in numerous areas of human activity: from medicine to the world of work, from culture to the field of communication, from education to politics. And it is fair to assume, then, that its use will increasingly influence our way of living, our social relationships and the future, even the way we conceive our identity as human beings.
The topic of artificial intelligence, however, is often perceived in an ambivalent way: on the one hand, it is exciting because of the possibilities it offers; On the other hand, it causes fear of the consequences that could occur.
We certainly cannot doubt that the arrival of artificial intelligence represents an authentic cognitive-industrial revolution, which will contribute to the creation of a new social system characterized by complex epochal transformations.
For example, artificial intelligence could allow a democratization of access to knowledge, the exponential progress of scientific research, the possibility of delegating exhausting work to machines; but, at the same time, it could bring with it greater inequality between advanced nations and developing nations, between dominant social classes and oppressed social classes, thus endangering the possibility of a “culture of encounter” and favoring a “culture of encounter.” discard”. This is the danger.
The magnitude of these complex transformations is linked to the rapid technological development of artificial intelligence itself.
This powerful technological advance simultaneously makes artificial intelligence a fascinating and tremendous instrument and requires reflection commensurate with the situation. In that direction perhaps we could start from the realization that artificial intelligence is above all an instrument. And it is spontaneous to affirm that the benefits or harms it entails will depend on its use.
This is true because it has been this way with every tool built by humans since the beginning of time.
Our ability to build tools, in a quantity and complexity that has no equal among living beings, speaks to us of a techno-human condition. Human beings have always maintained a relationship with the environment mediated by the instruments that they produce. We live in a condition of ulteriority concerning our biological being; We are beings inclined towards the outside of us and, in fact, radically open to the beyond. This is where our openness to others and God originates; From here comes the creative potential of our intelligence in terms of culture and beauty; From here, finally, our technical capacity originates. Technology is thus a trace of our ulteriority.
However, the use of our tools is not always directed unequivocally to good. Even when the human being feels within himself a vocation to the beyond and to knowledge lived as an instrument of good at the service of his brothers and sisters, and of the common home (cf. Gaudium et spes, 16), this does not always happen. What’s more, not infrequently, precisely thanks to its radical freedom, humanity has perverted the goals of its own being, becoming an enemy of itself and the planet.
Technological instruments can suffer the same fate. Only if their vocation at the service of humanity is guaranteed, will technological instruments reveal not only the greatness and unique dignity of the human being, but also the mandate that the latter has received to “cultivate and care for” the planet and all its inhabitants ( cf. Gen 2:15). Talking about technology is talking about what it means to be human and, therefore, about our unique condition between freedom and responsibility, that is, it means talking about ethics. You cannot separate one from the other.
But artificial intelligence is an even more complex tool. I would say that it is a sui generis tool. It is always worth remembering that the machine can, in some ways and with these new means, choose through algorithms. What the machine does is a technical choice among several possibilities and is based on well-defined criteria or statistical inferences.
The human being, on the other hand, not only chooses but in his heart, he is capable of deciding. The decision is an element that we could define as the most strategic of an election and requires a practical evaluation. For this reason, in the face of the wonders of machines, which seem to know how to choose independently, we must be very clear that the decision always corresponds to the human being, even with the dramatic and urgent tones with which it is sometimes presented in our life.
We would condemn humanity to a hopeless future if we take away people’s ability to decide for themselves and their lives, condemning them to depend on the choices of machines. We need to guarantee and protect a significant space of human control over the selection process used by artificial intelligence programs. Human dignity itself is at stake.
Precisely on this topic, allow me to insist that, in a drama like that of armed conflicts, it is urgent to rethink the development and use of devices such as the so-called “lethal autonomous weapons” to prohibit their use, starting now with a commitment effective and concrete to introduce increasingly greater and significant human control. No machine should ever choose to end the life of a human being.
To what we have already said, a more general observation is added. The era of technological innovation that we are going through, in fact, is accompanied by a particular and unprecedented social situation.
There is a loss or at least an obscuration of the sense of humanity and an apparent insignificance of the concept of human dignity. And so it is that in this era in which artificial intelligence programs question the human being and his actions, precisely the weakness of the ethos linked to the perception of the value and dignity of the human person runs the risk of being the greatest damage. ( vulnus ) in the implementation and development of these systems.
We must not forget that no innovation is neutral. Technology is born with a purpose and, in its impact on human society, it always represents a form of order in social relations and a provision of power, which enables someone to carry out certain actions while preventing others from doing so. This dimension of power that is constitutive of technology always includes, in a more or less explicit way, the world vision of the person who has created or developed it.
This also applies to artificial intelligence programs. For these instruments to be for the construction of good and a better future, they must always be ordered for the good of every human being. They must contain an ethical inspiration.
The ethical decision takes into account not only the results of an action but also the values at stake and the duties that derive from those values. This is why I have welcomed the signing in Rome, in 2020, of the Rome Call for AI Ethics and its support for that form of ethical moderation of algorithms and artificial intelligence programs that I have called “algoretics”.
In a plural and global context, in which different sensitivities and plural hierarchies in value scales are also shown, it would seem difficult to find a single hierarchy of values. But in ethical analysis, we can also resort to other types of instruments. If we find it difficult to define a single set of global values, we can find shared principles with which to face and reduce eventual dilemmas and conflicts in life.
We cannot hide the specific risk, because it is inherent in its fundamental mechanism, that artificial intelligence limits the vision of the world to realities that can be expressed in numbers and enclosed in pre-established categories, eliminating the contribution of other forms.
The technological paradigm embodied by artificial intelligence runs the risk of giving way to a much more dangerous paradigm, which I have already identified with the name “technocratic paradigm.”
And it is precisely here where political action is urgent, as the encyclical Fratelli tutti recalls . Certainly “for many, politics today is a bad word, and it cannot be ignored that behind this fact are often the errors, the corruption, the inefficiency of some politicians, not of all, of some.
Added to this are strategies that seek to weaken it, replace it with the economy or dominate it with some ideology. But can the world function without politics? No. Can there be an effective path towards universal brotherhood and social peace without good politics?
Our answer to these last questions is: no! Politics serves! What a Pope said about politics comes to mind: “It is the highest form of charity, it is the highest form of love.” Politics serves.
I want to reiterate on this occasion that “in the face of so many petty and immediate forms of politics […], political greatness is shown when, in difficult moments, one acts based on great principles and thinking about the common good in the long term. It is very difficult for political power to assume this duty in a national project and even more so in a common project for present and future humanity.”
There is always a temptation to standardize everything. A famous romance from the early 1900s comes to mind, “The Lord of the World”, a futuristic English romance that makes us see the future without politics, the future only uniform. It’s nice to read it, it’s interesting.
Dear ladies, and distinguished gentlemen, my reflection on the effects of artificial intelligence on the future of humanity thus leads us to consider the importance of “sound politics” to look at our future with hope and confidence. As I have said on another occasion, “world society has serious structural flaws that cannot be resolved with merely occasional patches or quick fixes. We must go to the roots. Some things must be changed with fundamental rethinking and important transformations. Only a healthy policy could lead it, bringing together the most diverse sectors and the most varied knowledge.
In this way, an economy integrated into a political, social, cultural and popular project that seeks the common good can “open the way to different opportunities, which do not imply stopping human creativity and its dream of progress, but rather directing that energy through new channels.” ” ( Laudato si’ , 191)”.
This is precisely the case of artificial intelligence. It is up to each person to make good use of it, and it is up to politics to create the conditions so that this good use is possible and fruitful. Thank you.