Pope Francis will attend a working session on artificial intelligence at the G7 meeting in southern Italy in June, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni announced Friday.
“This is the first time in history that a pontiff will participate in the work of a G7,” she stated, adding that Francis would attend the “outreach session” for guest participants at the Group of Seven industrialized nations gathering in Puglia.
Francis, 87, has pushed to influence the rise of artificial intelligence by advocating for a global convention to ensure that the technology is used ethically.
Meloni said it was crucial to harness the best ethical and intellectual reflections being developed in this field and praised the Vatican’s research into the “practical application of the concept of algorethics.
Francis’s presence would “make a decisive contribution to defining a regulatory, ethical and cultural framework for artificial intelligence”, she said.
Concerns about AI have increased since the chatbot ChatGPT, a mass-market gateway to generative AI, exploded onto the scene in late 2022.
The pope published a six-page message in December warning of the dangers of AI including in disinformation and interference in elections, and also to make decisions — from social security payments to where to target weapons — for which responsibility becomes blurred.
He called for a “binding international treaty” to regulate the development and use of AI, to prevent harm and share good practices.
The G7 summit, which brings together the leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the United States, will be held in Borgo Egnazia in Puglia from June 13 to 15.
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