Vatican Issues Ethical Guidelines for AI Use

The Vatican has released a document offering ethical guidelines for the use of artificial intelligence (AI) across sectors like warfare, healthcare, and education. This follows previous warnings from Pope Francis about AI's risks. The document emphasizes that AI should support, not replace, human intelligence.

The guidelines address various domains. In warfare, it warns against AI's potential to amplify military capabilities beyond human oversight, cautioning against an "arms race" driven by autonomous weapons systems that bypass human moral judgment. The document states: "No machine should ever choose to take the life of a human being."

Regarding human relationships, the Vatican underlines AI's inability to replace genuine human interaction, highlighting its lack of empathy and potential dangers in child development and interpersonal dynamics. The document said: "While human beings are meant to experience authentic relationships, AI can only simulate them."

The document also expresses concern over society's reliance on AI for meaning and fulfillment, cautioning that this could be seen as idolatry, directly contradicting religious teachings. It states: "The presumption of substituting God for an artifact of human making is idolatry, a practice Scripture explicitly warns against." (This story was generated by Newser's AI chatbot. Source: the AP)