13:07 (IST), June 14
Live news from the 2024 G7 summit: Pope Francis will be the first pope to attend the G7
Pope Francis is familiar with the impact of artificial intelligence, a fact highlighted when a bogus photo of him wearing a white down jacket appeared online last year. But his concerns about artificial intelligence go beyond unflattering images and will be front and center at the Group of Seven (G7) summit.
On Friday, Francis will address G7 leaders at their annual meeting in southern Italy, a historic first for a pope. He will apply the platform to advocate for stronger regulation of artificial intelligence, driven by the emergence of tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
In his annual peace message this year, the Argentine pope called for an international treaty ensuring the ethical development and apply of artificial intelligence. He stressed that technologies without human values such as compassion, mercy, morality and forgiveness are too risky to be developed without supervision.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni invited Francis to the summit, recognizing the influence of his star power and moral authority. Its aim is to link widespread concerns about artificial intelligence with Francis’ emphasis on peace and social justice.
“The pope is, well, a very special kind of celebrity,” said John Kirton, a political scientist at the University of Toronto who leads the think tank G7 Research Group.
By attending the summit, Pope Francis hopes to contribute to the growing global dialogue on the ethical development and apply of artificial intelligence.
