Pope Francis wants to see facial recognition, artificial intelligence, and other powerful new technologies follow a doctrine of ethical and moral principles.
In a joint document made public two months ago, the pope, along with IBM and Microsoft, laid out a vision that outlined principles for the emerging technologies and called for new regulations, Reuters first reported.
The Vatican's "Rome Calls for AI Ethics" said that AI tools should be built "with a focus not on technology, but rather for the good of humanity and of the environment" and consider the "needs of those who are most vulnerable." Environment—of course—includes the Pope’s prominent Climate Change agenda, and his increasing references to comprehensive human ‘rest’ to help the earth ‘heal.’ “Most vulnerable” is a reference to social justice, another of the Pope’s hot-button issues.
The "algor-ethics" outlined in the document included transparency, inclusion, responsibility, impartiality, reliability, security, and privacy, alluding to debates that have emerged around topics like algorithmic bias and data privacy.
Along those lines, it called for new regulations around "advanced technologies that have a higher risk of impacting human rights, such as facial recognition." Facial-recognition technology in particular has sparked concerns in recent years, thanks to research showing a problem with racial bias and the lack of transparency from companies that develop it.
The document, which was endorsed by Microsoft and IBM, is not the first time Francis has weighed in on ethical issues surrounding technology. At a Vatican conference in September, the pontiff warned that technological progress, if not kept in check, could lead society to "an unfortunate regression to a form of barbarism."
Various people and organizations within the tech industry have spoken out about regulating AI, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, as well as AI ethics groups like AI Now and OpenAI.
I’m not sure I want the Pope and Bill Gates etc.. (who identifies as a kind-of Catholic) making decisions on high technology that will one day be used to spy on and track human beings. Especially giving the persecutorial role that the Roman Catholic Church has played in the past (and will play in the future).
Our Father has promised to keep His children in the hollow of His hand (Isaiah 49:2), and we can rest in that promise, despite human devisings that are gathered against us in the Time of the End.
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“Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666” (Revelation 13:17-18).