Artificial intelligence is so overhyped right now that even the Catholic Church is wagging a finger.
Organized as ever, Pope Francis got his annual message for the World Day of Peace in a full 145 days early to warn of the technology’s “disruptive possibilities and ambivalent effects.”
Lest you think he only heard about AI yesterday, the supreme pontiff “recalls the need to be vigilant and to work so that a logic of violence and discrimination does not take root in the production and use of such devices, at the expense of the most fragile and excluded,” which demonstrates a thorough reading of Register articles on the matter.
“The urgent need to orient the concept and use of artificial intelligence in a responsible way, so that it may be at the service of humanity and the protection of our common home, requires that ethical reflection be extended to the sphere of education and law,” he continued.
To be fair, he might still be mad from that puffer jacket deepfake.
The statement released via the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development observed that the technology is having a “rapidly increasing impact on human activity, personal and social life, politics and the economy,” and called for cautious development to ensure it contributes to “the promotion of justice and peace in the world.”
And the head of the Catholic Church wouldn’t be wrong. Many have expressed concern about how many jobs it could wipe out down the line. Heck, even Sam Altman of OpenAI, which developed the ubiquitous ChatGPT, has a crypto startup designed to pay people for being human when we’ve all been rendered obsolete.
Even the Pope is replaceable. In June, over 300 churchgoers attended a ChatGPT-powered service in Germany, and while some remarked it had “no heart or soul,” others were “pleasantly surprised how well it worked.” OK, it was a Protestant congregation, but still.
Plus, who’s to say the dicastery didn’t use ChatGPT to write their statement? The Register asked and awaits their response with great anticipation.
Also in this episode of Celebs Say The Darnedest Things About AI, Ron Weasley of music for 12-year-olds – AKA Ed Sheeran – told Audacy Live the technology is “weird.”
“What I don’t understand about AI is like… For the last 60 years, Hollywood movies have been telling you, ‘Don’t do it.’ And now everyone’s doing it,” he said. “I’m just like, ‘Have you not seen the movies where they kill us all?’
“Also I don’t know why you need it. There are just certain things… If you’re taking a job away from a human being, that’s probably a bad thing. The whole point of society is we do jobs and do things, if everything is done by robots, everyone is gonna be out of work.”
Which is about the level of profundity you can expect from the person who wrote “Drunk.” ®
***No AI was used in the production of this article***
