Pope Francis is extending his advocacy for the ethical development and utilization of artificial intelligence to the Group of 7 (G7) industrialized nations.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni announced on Friday that Pope Francis had accepted her invitation to participate in the G7 Summit, scheduled to take place in Puglia in June. This announcement was later confirmed by the Vatican.
As the current head of the G7, Meloni will host the summit from June 13-15, welcoming leaders from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, and the United States.
In a video statement, Meloni expressed her conviction that Pope Francis’s presence at the summit, particularly in the session dedicated to artificial intelligence, will play a pivotal role in shaping a regulatory, ethical, and cultural framework for AI.
Pope Francis has consistently advocated for an international treaty to ensure the ethical development and application of AI, and this year’s annual peace message was devoted to this pressing topic.
The emergence of advanced AI systems, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, has garnered global attention for their human-like capabilities in generating text, images, and music. However, alongside admiration for these technological feats, concerns have been raised regarding potential risks to employment, privacy, copyright protection, and even fundamental human rights.
The Pontifical Academy for Life, the Vatican’s bioethics think tank, has spearheaded an initiative to engage major tech companies, academic institutions, and NGOs in committing to a set of ethical standards for the development and use of AI. Cisco Systems became the latest signatory to this initiative just this week.
During the recent G7 foreign ministers’ meeting held in Capri, Italy, ministers highlighted the cybersecurity risks associated with AI and emphasized the importance of advancing efforts to ensure AI that is safe, secure, and trustworthy, with a focus on human-centered and human rights-based principles.
