A new papal teaching document emphasizes that the rapid rise of AI is off-track from human and truth-centered virtues. It urges governments, companies, and individuals to be wary of creating another Tower of Babel, where unified communication collapses into confusion. The document calls for oversight of how AI is developed and adopted, including prudence, rigorous evaluation, and at times a slower pace. It frames responsible care as compatible with progress rather than opposition to innovation. It also warns that AI can function as a force antagonistic to humanity. A Tolkien passage is used to stress shared responsibility for improving the conditions of those who come after.
"In it, he emphasized that the rapid rise of the technology is off-track from the otherwise ecclesiastical virtues of humanity and truth-and that governments, companies, and people should be wary of creating another "Tower of Babel," referring to a Biblical city-tower in which one single language was spoken."
""Calling for prudence, rigorous evaluation and even, at times, a slower pace in adopting AI does not mean opposing progress," he writes, "Instead, it is an exercise of responsible care." It's worth noting that while the Pope never says he's against innovation or the rise of technologies generally, he says it must be considered a "force antagonistic to humanity.""
"The twentieth-century Catholic author J.R.R. Tolkien, in the words of a protagonist in one of his novels, described our responsibility in this way: "It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till.""
#ai-governance #ethics-and-human-values #religious-teachings #technology-oversight #risk-of-societal-harm
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