The head of the Catholic Church gave an ominous speech at the G7 summit.

Pope Francis has called artificial intelligence a fascinating but terrifying tool that he says requires "ethical algorithms." The head of the Catholic Church gave a speech at the summit meeting of the heads of state and government of the seven most developed industrialized countries (G7) at the Borgo Egnazia resort in southern Italy on Friday. For the first time, the head of the Catholic Church participated in the summit meeting of the group of countries. The Pope spoke at a panel discussion on artificial intelligence and held several bilateral meetings.

He met with Joe Biden of America, Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, Emmanuel Macron of France, Narendra Modi of India, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil, Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, Abdel-Majjid Tebbun of Algeria and William Samoei Ruto of Kenya, as well as Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Kristalina Georgieva, with the Director General of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

He gave his speech in the presence of representatives of the most developed industrial countries 

Pope Francis called artificial intelligence a fascinating but terrifying tool and talked about its impact on the future of humanity.

He believed that it was indisputable that artificial intelligence would lead to a revolution in human knowledge and industry. He mentioned the democratization of access to knowledge, the huge leap forward in scientific research, or the transfer of tasks to machines that are burdensome for humans as advantages.

At the same time, according to Pope Francis, artificial intelligence can create a deep gap between developed and disadvantaged nations, the ruling and the oppressed social classes, replacing the culture of "meeting between people" with the "culture of disposal".

The head of the church noted that from the beginning, man has helped his life with simpler and then more and more advanced tools, but artificial intelligence, he added, is a special tool that entrusts the possibility of decisions to machines.

"We condemn humanity to a hopeless future if we take away people's ability to make decisions about themselves and their lives and make them dependent on the decisions of machines"

- said Pope Francis.

Therefore, he called for a ban on the development and use of weapons of war without direct human control: "no machine should decide whether to take a person's life or not."

The head of the church warned that humans are considered capable of development, humans are capable of "surprising the world with their actions", and artificial intelligence is not another person with whom we need to establish an emotional or any other dependent relationship. The Pope explained that the Western world is beginning to lose the value system represented by man. Artificial intelligence must “build a better future subordinated to the well-being of all people,” he said.

That is why he called for ethical algorithms, or “algorithmic” guidelines, as he used the wording, as well as “healthy political control” over artificial intelligence. "Peace also requires good politics"

Pope Francis noted.

MTI

Featured image: Facebook/Vatican News