Pope Francis has accepted an invitation from Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to attend the upcoming Group of 7 (G7) summit in Puglia next month. This will make him the first pontiff ever to participate in a meeting of the industrialized nations’ leaders, which include representatives from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and the United States.
Meloni announced Francis’ attendance on Friday via video statement, stating that she believed his presence would significantly contribute towards defining an appropriate regulatory, ethical and cultural framework for artificial intelligence (AI). The summit is scheduled to take place between June 13-15 this year.
The pontiff has long advocated for AI development to follow moral principles after concerns about the technology’s potential risks were raised by experts in various fields such as cybersecurity, job loss and privacy invasion. He recently devoted his annual peace message entirely to the topic of artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence technology currently includes tools like ChatGPT developed by OpenAI which are capturing significant attention for their human-like capabilities regarding text production, image generation and song creation.
The Vatican’s Pontifical Academy for Life has been actively campaigning on this issue; leading academic institutions as well nonprofit groups across the world to make AI usage promises centered around a set of moral principles. Cisco Systems recently joined these efforts by signing up with other signatories, including tech giants like Google and Microsoft.
The G7 foreign ministers’ meeting held in Capri last weekend recognized that there is an increasing threat from artificial intelligence on cybersecurity while also acknowledging the importance of advancing initiatives to ensure safe, secure and trustworthy AI which prioritizes human rights and humanity-centricity over other factors.
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