In these early days of the A.I. revolution, a lesson from the first Industrial Revolution holds firm. Catholic social teaching instructs us to look beyond machinery to people.
Technology
Posted inPolitics & Society, Short Take
Trump, Elon Musk and the dangers of ‘god mode’ tech powers in government
DOGE is attempting to undermine a congressional check on presidential power. It is rewriting the Constitution.
Posted inFaith, Faith and Reason
Pope Leo XIV’s name choice and facing the world of artificial intelligence
A.I. assistants are advertised as helping us speak more clearly and easily. But are they accomplishing the opposite?
Posted inFaith, News
Catholic prayer app Hallow cuts ties with Russell Brand after actor and Christian convert charged with rape
Russell Brand, a British actor and comedian who promoted the Hallow prayer app and interviewed Bishop Robert E. Barron, has been charged with rape and other sexual offenses.
Posted inFaith, News
St. Peter’s Basilica becomes an interactive Minecraft world
Imagine being able to explore all of St. Peter’s Basilica, its artistic masterpieces and the saint’s underground tomb, and even have a go at restoring it—virtually, that is—and in the 3-D blocky world of Minecraft.
Posted inDispatches, Politics & Society
Europe was a world leader in A.I. regulation. Will Trump change that?
E.U. regulations on artificial intelligence may not be global in scope, but they affect 450 million consumers and companies will have to implement E.U. rules and adopt them for other territories for cost-saving reasons.
Posted inPolitics & Society, Vatican Dispatch
Pope Francis denounces deregulation, neoliberalism and the breakdown of global cooperation in new letter
“Endorsing utilitarian deregulation and global neoliberalism means imposing the law of the strongest as the only rule; and it is a law that dehumanizes,” the pope wrote in a letter to members of the Pontifical Academy for Life.
Posted inFaith, Faith and Reason
Pope Francis can help chart A.I.’s way forward
From both the Vatican and the pope, we have heard a consistent message: A.I. is a tool that is created by and shapes human culture. Thus far, however, we have not seen much in the way of specific recommendations. We believe that this is an important next step for Francis as he emerges as a leading global voice in conversations about A.I.
Posted inExplainer, Politics & Society
What does the Vatican know about A.I.? A lot, actually.
A timeline of the Vatican’s decade-long history of leadership in the field of A.I. ethics—a history that has earned it significant influence among tech leaders, particularly at Microsoft and IBM
Posted inPolitics & Society, Vatican Dispatch
New Vatican document on A.I. warns against ‘creating a substitute for God’
As the United States and China vie for primacy in the field of artificial intelligence, the Vatican today issued a wide-ranging reflection on “the relationship between Artificial Intelligence and Human Intelligence.”