Pope Francis Meets With G7, Warns About AI

Pope Francis is now the first pontiff to address the Group of Seven (G7) leaders during their summit in Italy. The pope challenged leaders of the world's wealthy democracies to "keep human dignity foremost in developing and using artificial intelligence (AI)."

Pope Francis was invited by the host country, Italy, and he was able to address a special session of the G7's annual summit.

"The perils and promises of AI" was on the world leaders' agenda for that session.

During his address to the G7, the first pontiff from Latin America offered an ethical take on AI, which is increasingly becoming a top agenda for international summits, government policy, and corporate boards, according to the Associated Press.

"Politicians must take the lead in making sure AI remains human-centric so that decisions about when to use weapons or even less-lethal tools always remain made by humans and not machines," he said in his speech.

"We would condemn humanity to a future without hope if we took away people's ability to make decisions about themselves and their lives, by dooming them to depend on the choices of machines," the pope added. "We need to ensure and safeguard a space for proper human control over the choices made by artificial intelligence programs: Human dignity itself depends on it."

It was noted that his concerns largely reflected the world leaders' as well. They vowed to "better coordinate the governance and regulatory frameworks surrounding AI" so that it would be "human-centered," as Pope Francis suggested.

"We will pursue an inclusive, human-centered, digital transformation that underpins economic growth and sustainable development, maximizes benefits, and manages risks, in line with our shared democratic values and respect for human rights," said the G7 leaders in a joint statement.

Pope Francis Told Families To Keep Homilies Short Because 'People Fall Asleep'

Before the G7 summit, however, Pope Francis also addressed something many Catholics agree on, and that is to keep homilies shorter as priests tend to drone on and have some of their flock fall asleep.

He told priests that their homilies "must be short: an image, a thought, a feeling" and added, "Priests sometimes talk a lot and you don't understand what they are talking about."

The Argentinian also emphasized that homilies should not last longer than eight minutes "because after that time attention is lost and people fall asleep, and they are right."

Pope Francis Recently Met With Comedians From All Over the World at the Vatican

Aside from meeting with the G7, some of the most powerful leaders on Earth, the pope also met with comedians from all over the world, with 106 of them descending on the Vatican for the meeting.

He told the assembled comedians, which include Stephen Colbert, Whoopi Goldberg, Jimmy Fallon, Chris Rock, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and more, that they have the "power to spread serenity and smiles" in a world where people are immersed in "many social and personal emergencies," adding, "You unite people because laughter is contagious."

"You can also laugh at God, of course, and that's not blasphemy," he stated and added that "it can be done without offending the religious feelings of believers."

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

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