The Vatican urges ethical AI use in warfare and healthcare; Quartz, January 29, 2025

 Quartz Intelligence Newsroom, Quartz; The Vatican urges ethical AI use in warfare and healthcare

"This story incorporates reporting from  Angelus, Catholic News Agency and The New York Times.

The Vatican has released a comprehensive document offering new guidelines for the ethical development and use of artificial intelligence, with a focus on areas such as warfare and healthcare...

Ultimately, the Vatican’s guidelines encourage deeper engagement with the humanities, suggesting that AI’s rise should inspire renewed interest in understanding and valuing the human condition. This approach positions AI as a tool for enhancing, not diminishing, human creativity, empathy, and moral responsibility. Through continued dialogue and regulation, the Vatican hopes to steer AI development towards a future that aligns with ethical and spiritual values."

Killer Robots Aren’t Science Fiction. A Push to Ban Them Is Growing.; The New York Times, December 17, 2022

Adam Satariano, Nick Cumming-Bruce and Rick Gladstone, The New York Times; Killer Robots Aren’t Science Fiction. A Push to Ban Them Is Growing.

A U.N. conference made little headway this week on limiting development and use of killer robots, prompting stepped-up calls to outlaw such weapons with a new treaty.

"It may have seemed like an obscure United Nations conclave, but a meeting this week in Geneva was followed intently by experts in artificial intelligence, military strategy, disarmament and humanitarian law.

The reason for the interest? Killer robots — drones, guns and bombs that decide on their own, with artificial brains, whether to attack and kill — and what should be done, if anything, to regulate or ban them.

Once the domain of science fiction films like the “Terminator” series and “RoboCop,” killer robots, more technically known as Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems, have been invented and tested at an accelerated pace with little oversight. Some prototypes have even been used in actual conflicts.

The evolution of these machines is considered a potentially seismic event in warfare, akin to the invention of gunpowder and nuclear bombs."