Pope Francis established, through a rescript signed ex audienceia on April 16, 2021 and published on May 18, a Foundation called renAIssance whose objective is to promote an ethical approach to AI.
The new Foundation now has its own canonical existence: its seat is the Pontifical Academy for Life, presided over by Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia.
The remote origin of this Foundation
The creation of this Foundation is the response to the Rome Appeal for the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence, jointly signed on February 28, 2020 by the president of Microsoft, Brad Smith, the vice president of IBM, John Kelly III, by the general director of the FAO, Qu Dongyu, by the Italian government in the person of the Minister of Innovation and , Paola Pisano, and by myself, Monsignor Paglia explained to the Ansa news agency.
To avoid drifting from a "dictatorship of new technologies", the president of the Pontifical Academy for Life is committed to an AlgorÉtica (ethical algorithm) against which the signatories of the Rome Appeal commit: "before the invasion of digital technology in everyone's life, it is important to reaffirm the common ethical, educational and legal framework of artificial intelligence", and prevent "the holders of big data from using it at will", Monsignor Paglia insisted.
Specifically, the objective of renAIssance will be to help companies in a process of evaluating the effects of technologies linked to AI, the risks they entail and the possible ways of regulation.
Because "equity in the search for information is at stake, since the sophistication of services is systematically withdrawn from those who do not belong to privileged groups or do not have specific skills", warned the Italian prelate.
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There is deep concern in the social and political spheres about the use of AI, especially in the areas of private life, mass surveillance, facial recognition, but also in the context of political manipulation. China is the perfect example of this with the surveillance launched against the Uyghurs.
Another horizontal initiative that forgets its significance
This initiative, which has laudable aspects, unfortunately seems to be part of the mission of a UN chaplain, a role that Pedro's successor seems to want assume at all costs.
It is part of the body of initiatives of the pontificate that work for "secondary Christianity". This notion, admirably identified by Romano Amerio, is defined as "an error of the 19th century (...) that considered Christianity as the supreme system of human values, equivalent to the ideal of human perfection".1
This spirit is found in a new form in the post-conciliar Church, the author continues: the latter affirms that "Catholicism does not identify itself with any civilization, but rather elevates them all. Now, religion certainly has the effect civilization and the history of the Church bear witness to this, but it does not have civilization as its main purpose or as its goal in the sense of earthly perfection.(…) [Today] it offers its services to the world and seeks to lead the human progress2 (...) and aspires to leaven all particular civilizations pushing them towards a global civilization (...) that should engender a more just and humane world"3.
However, as Romano Amerio also affirms, "the Church cannot take this improvement as a primary end or equal to its primary end without distorting itself. (...) Of course, the Church has contributed to the maturation of European civilization through through a natural but secondary effect of religion. He developed the civilizing potentialities of the secular world. At the Second Vatican Council he promised to participate directly in temporal perfection, thus trying to introduce the progress of peoples as a goal of the Gospel".4
And the author continues: "The fact of having integrated earthly civilization into the Gospel obscures the superterrestrial purposes of religion5. The Church is committed to an ecumenical humanitarian ideal through which all "men" are associated Of goodwill".
The renAIssance Foundation is just a new stage in the search for this humanitarian ideal that leaves aside the primary mission of the Gospel: to convert men to Christ and his light. This is the only way to ensure a little justice here on earth, because Christ is Justice.