Pope Leo XIV Flags AI Impact on Kids' Intellectual and Spiritual Development
Pope Leo XIV warned Friday that artificial intelligence could negatively impact the intellectual, neurological, and spiritual development of young people as he pressed one of the priorities of his young pontificate.
History's first American pope sent a message to a conference of AI and ethics, part of which was taking place in the Vatican, in a sign of the Holy See's concern for the new technologies and what they mean for humanity. In the message, Leo said any further development of AI must be evaluated according to the 'superior ethical criterion' of the need to safeguard the dignity of each human being while respecting the diversity of the world's population. He warned specifically that new generations are most at risk, given they have never had such quick access to information.
'All of us, I am sure, are concerned for children and young people and the possible consequences of the use of AI on their intellectual and neurological development,' he said in the message. 'Society's well-being depends upon their being given the ability to develop their God-given gifts and capabilities and not allow them to confuse mere access to data with intelligence.'
'In the end, authentic wisdom has more to do with recognizing the true meaning of life than with the availability of data,' he said.
Leo, who was elected in May after the death of Pope Francis, has identified AI as one of the most critical matters facing humanity, saying it poses challenges to defending human dignity, justice, and labor. He has explained his concern for AI by invoking his namesake, Pope Leo XIII. That Leo was pope during the dawn of the Industrial Revolution and made the plight of workers and the need to guarantee their rights and dignity a key priority.
Toward the end of his pontificate, Francis became increasingly vocal about the threats to humanity posed by AI and called for an international treaty to regulate it. Francis said politicians must take the lead in making sure AI remains human-centric so that decisions about when to use weapons or even less-lethal tools always remain made by humans and not machines.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Al Arabiya
4 minutes ago
- Al Arabiya
US sanctions target those providing Iran with defense machinery, Houthi oil trading
The Trump administration said on Friday it had issued fresh Iran-related sanctions targeting eight entities, one vessel and one person for their alleged role in providing sensitive machinery for Tehran's defense industry. 'The United States remains resolved to disrupt any effort by Iran to procure the sensitive, dual-use technology, components, and machinery that underpin the regime's ballistic missile, unmanned aerial vehicle, and asymmetric weapons programs,' US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said. 'Treasury will continue to degrade Iran's ability to produce and proliferate these deadly weapons, which threaten regional stability and global security,' he added in a statement announcing the action. Two of the entities include shipping companies based in Hong Kong: Unico Shipping Co. Ltd and Athena Shipping Co. Ltd, the statement said. The Treasury Department on Friday also issued counterterrorism-related sanctions targeting Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis over alleged illicit oil trading and shipping, it said in a separate statement. Those sanctions target four individuals, 12 entities, and two vessels over imported oil and other illicit goods to support the Houthis, the department said.
Al Arabiya
18 minutes ago
- Al Arabiya
Supreme Court Revives Lawsuits Against Palestinian Authorities From US Victims of Terrorism Attacks
The Supreme Court on Friday revived long-running lawsuits against Palestinian authorities from Americans who were killed or wounded in terrorist attacks in the Middle East. The justices upheld a 2019 law enacted by Congress specifically to allow the victims' lawsuits to go forward against the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority. The attacks occurred in the early 2000s, killing 33 people and wounding hundreds more, and in 2018 when a US-born settler was stabbed to death by a Palestinian assailant outside a mall in the West Bank. The victims and their families assert that Palestinian agents either were involved in the attacks or incited them. The Palestinians have consistently argued that the cases shouldn't be allowed in American courts. The federal appeals court in New York has repeatedly ruled in favor of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority, despite Congress' efforts to allow the victims' lawsuits to be heard. The 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals first ruled in 2016 against the victims of the attacks from 20 years ago, tossing out a $654 million jury verdict in their favor. In that earlier ruling, the appeals court held US courts can't consider lawsuits against foreign-based groups over random attacks that were not aimed at the US. The victims had sued under the Anti-Terrorism Act signed into law in 1992. The law was passed to open US courts to victims of international terrorism, spurred by the killing of American Leon Klinghoffer during a 1985 terrorist attack aboard the Achille Lauro cruise ship. The jury found the PLO and the Palestinian Authority liable for six attacks and awarded $218 million in damages. The award was automatically tripled under the law. After the Supreme Court rejected the victims' appeal in 2018, Congress again amended the law to make clear it did not want to close the courthouse door to the victims.
Al Arabiya
32 minutes ago
- Al Arabiya
Judge Rules Trump Administration Can't Require States to Help on Immigration to Get Transport Money
A federal judge on Thursday blocked the Trump administration from withholding billions of dollars in transportation funds from states that don't agree to participate in some immigration enforcement actions. Twenty states sued after they said Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy threatened to cut off funding to states that refused to comply with President Donald Trump's immigration agenda. US District Judge John McConnell Jr. barred federal transportation officials from carrying out that threat before the lawsuit is fully resolved. 'The Court finds that the States have demonstrated they will face irreparable and continuing harm if forced to agree to Defendants' unlawful and unconstitutional immigration conditions imposed in order to receive federal transportation grant funds,' wrote McConnell, the chief judge for the federal district of Rhode Island. 'The States face losing billions of dollars in federal funding, are being put in a position of relinquishing their sovereign right to decide how to use their own police officers, are at risk of losing the trust built between local law enforcement and immigrant communities, and will have to scale back, reconsider, or cancel ongoing transportation projects.' On April 24, states received letters from the Department of Transportation stating that they must cooperate on immigration efforts or risk losing the congressionally appropriated funds. No funding was immediately withheld, but some of the states feared the move was imminent. Attorneys general from California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, Wisconsin, and Vermont filed the lawsuit in May, saying the new so-called 'Duffy Directive' put them in an impossible position. 'The States can either attempt to comply with an unlawful and unconstitutional condition that would surrender their sovereign control over their own law enforcement officers and reduce immigrants' willingness to report crimes and participate in public health programs–or they can forfeit tens of billions of dollars of funds they rely on regularly to support the roads, highways, railways, airways, ferries, and bridges that connect their communities and homes,' the attorneys general wrote in court documents. But acting Rhode Island US Attorney Sara Miron Bloom told the judge that Congress has given the Department of Transportation the legal right to set conditions for the grant money it administers to states and that requiring compliance and cooperation with federal law enforcement is a reasonable exercise of that discretion. Allowing the federal government to withhold the funds while the lawsuit moves forward doesn't cause any lasting harm, Bloom wrote in court documents, because that money can always be disbursed later if needed. But requiring the federal government to release the money to uncooperative states will likely make it impossible to recoup later if the Department of Transportation wins the case, Bloom said.
