Tech giants urged to avoid slide to new “barbarism”

POPE Francis urged tech giants yesterday to make sure advances such as artificial intelligence do not lead to a new “form of barbarism” where the law of the strongest prevails over the common good.

Francis was addressing participants at a Vatican conference attended by executives from Facebook, Mozilla, and Western Digital as well as Nobel laureates, Catholic ethicists, government regulators, internet entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists.

“The remarkable developments, in particular those dealing with artificial intelligence, raise increasingly significant implications in all areas of human activity. Open and concrete discussions on this theme are needed now more than ever,” Francis said.

He said technology needed “both theoretical and practical moral principles”.

Francis warned of the dangers of the use of artificial intelligence “that could manipulate the opinions of millions of people, to the point of endangering the very institutions that guarantee peaceful civil coexistence”.

“If mankind’s so-called technological progress were to become an enemy of the common good, this would lead to an unfortunate regression to a form of barbarism dictated by the law of the strongest,” he said.

The conference is taking place amid the rise of cyber espionage, online hate speech and misuse of data, and signs the industry is struggling to respond.

The three-day gathering ends today. |