AI Ethics for Peace; L'Osservatore Romano, July 12, 2024

 L'Osservatore Romano; AI Ethics for Peace

"Eleven World Religions, sixteen new signatories, thirteen nations in attendance, more than 150 participants: these are some of the numbers of AI Ethics for Peace, the historic multireligious event held in Hiroshima, Japan, on 9 and 10 July...

The choice to hold this event in Hiroshima has a deeply symbolic meaning, because no other city like it bears witness to the consequences of destructive technology and the need for a lasting quest for peace.

AI Ethics for Peace, over two days, brought together the world’s major religions to underscore their crucial importance in shaping a society in which, in the face of the relentless acceleration of technology, the call for technological development that protects the dignity of each individual human being and the entire planet becomes a reality.

This will be possible only if algorethics, that is, the development and application of an ethics of artificial intelligence, becomes an indispensable element by design, i.e. from the moment of its design.

Remarkable was the talk by Father Paolo Benanti, Professor of Ethics of Technology at the Pontifical Gregorian University, who presented the Hiroshima Addendum on Generative AI. This document focuses on the need for ethical governance of generative AI — an ongoing and iterative process that requires a sustained commitment from all stakeholders so that its potential is used for the good of humanity.

The application of Rome Call principles to the reality of the tech world and the responsibility that AI producers share were witnessed by the attending big tech leaders."

Vatican conference ponders who really holds the power of AI; Religion News Service, June 27, 2024

Claire Giangravé, Religion News Service; Vatican conference ponders who really holds the power of AI

"The vice director general of Italy’s Agency for National Cybersecurity, Nunzia Ciardi, also warned at the conference of the influence held by leading AI developers.

“Artificial intelligence is made up of massive economic investments that only large superpowers can afford and through which they ensure a very important geopolitical dominance and access to the large amount of data that AI must process to produce outputs,” Ciardi said.

Participants agreed that international organizations must enforce stronger regulations for the use and advancement of AI technologies.

“You could say that we are colonized by AI, which is managed by select companies that brutally rack through our data,” she added.

“We need guardrails, because what is coming is a radical transformation that will change real and digital relations and require not only reflection but also regulation,” Benanti said.

The “Rome Call for AI Ethics,” a document signed by IBM, Microsoft, Cisco and U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization representatives, was promoted by the Vatican’s Academy for Life and lays out guidelines for promoting ethics, transparency and inclusivity in AI.

Other religious communities have also joined the “Rome Call,” including the Anglican Church and Jewish and Muslim representatives. On July 9, representatives from Eastern religions will gather for a Vatican-sponsored event to sign the “Rome Call” in Hiroshima, Japan. The location was decided to emphasize the dangerous consequences of technology when unchecked."

Why the pope has the ears of G7 leaders on the ethics of AI; The Guardian, June 14, 2024

Patrick Wintour , The Guardian; Why the pope has the ears of G7 leaders on the ethics of AI

"Normally when an 87-year-old claiming infallibility turns up at your door, the instinct is to give them a cup of tea and quietly ring social services. But when 1.3 billion other people, including your hostess, believe he is indeed infallible, the dynamic somewhat changes.

So Pope Francis, invited by the devout Catholic and Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni, was warmly greeted when he reached the summit of mammon, the G7 club of western wealthy countries...

Sunak held the world’s first summit on AI safety leading to the Bletchley Declaration in October 2023. The UN has an AI expert advisory board that issued an interim report in December and, in May 2023 under the Japanese presidency, G7 leaders signed something called somewhat discouragingly the Hiroshima Process. (This is not as incendiary as it suggests. Think Schmidhuber, not Oppenheimer.)...

Sunak held the world’s first summit on AI safety leading to the Bletchley Declaration in October 2023. The UN has an AI expert advisory board that issued an interim report in December and, in May 2023 under the Japanese presidency, G7 leaders signed something called somewhat discouragingly the Hiroshima Process. (This is not as incendiary as it suggests. Think Schmidhuber, not Oppenheimer.)"