The Vatican published a new text on artificial intelligence (AI) Tuesday, warning the tool could destroy the trust on which societies are built, while humans become “cogs in a machine”.
Pope Francis, regularly a victim of fake news and doctored photographs, cautioned earlier this month that AI could be “misused to manipulate minds”. The Vatican text elaborates on his thinking.
“AI-generated fake media can gradually undermine the foundations of society,” read the text, written by two Vatican departments and approved by the 88-year-old pontiff.
“As deepfakes cause people to question everything and AI-generated false content erodes trust in what they see and hear, polarisation and conflict will only grow”, it said.
“Such widespread deception is no trivial matter; it strikes at the core of humanity, dismantling the foundational trust on which societies are built.”
The Vatican released the text three weeks after tech giant Meta — which owns Facebook — announced it was ending its third-party fact-checking programme in the United States and adopting a crowd-sourced model to police misinformation, similar to that at Elon Musk-owned X.
“Misinformation — especially through AI-controlled or influenced media — can spread unintentionally, fuelling political polarisation and social unrest”, the Vatican text said.
It warned of a “shadow of evil” looming over the tool and said “the concentration of the power over mainstream AI applications in the hands of a few powerful companies raises significant ethical concerns.”
Francis has acknowledged what he has called the “immense potential” of AI, and the text cites medical applications, climate-related challenges and education as areas in which it could be invaluable.
But it could also “de-skill workers, subject them to automated surveillance, and relegate them to rigid and repetitive tasks” and risks being “used to replace human workers rather than complement them”.
AI cannot be a substitute for human relationships — particularly in medicine, where it risks “worsening the loneliness that often accompanies illness”, it said.
And using it “for surveillance aimed at exploiting, restricting others’ freedom, or benefiting a few at the expense of the many, is unjustifiable”, it added.
The “dangers” of lethal autonomous weapons “demands serious attention”, it said, recalling that Francis has urged “a prohibition on their use”.
“The atrocities committed throughout history are enough to raise deep concerns about the potential abuses of AI”, it said.
