Pope Francis opened his address at the G7 summit with an important decision:
Here are two versions… a long one and a short one. I’ll just read the short one.
In his address to the leaders of seven of the world’s most progressive countries – from Joe Biden to the Japanese prime minister – the pope condemned something that is not prohibited under US law: the use of lethal autonomous weapons.
POPE FRANCIS
Given the tragedy of armed conflict, there is an urgent need to rethink the development and deployment of devices such as so-called “lethal autonomous weapons” and ultimately ban their use. This begins with an effective and concrete commitment to introduce ever stronger and more proportionate human control. No machine should ever choose to take a human life.
The Pope’s remarks focused on artificial intelligence. While recognizing the power and benefits of this advanced technology, Pope Francis warned of the greater divide it could create between developed and developing countries, as well as the risk it poses to human dignity.
POPE FRANCIS
We would condemn humanity to a future without hope if we deprived people of the ability to make decisions about themselves and their lives by condemning them to depend on the decisions of machines. We must ensure and preserve a space for adequate human control over the decisions of artificial intelligence programs: human dignity itself depends on it.
At the end of his speech, Pope Francis spoke about the importance and necessity of a “healthy politics” and said that only it is capable of changing the structural deficiencies from which world society suffers.
During his few hours at the G7 summit in the Italian region of Apulia, Pope Francis not only gave a speech but also held up to ten bilateral meetings with world leaders.
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