ON BOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (AP) — Pope Leo XIV said on Monday that concerns about the rogue nature of artificial intelligence are not “fake news” and should be taken seriously, insisting that security questions raised by AI experts should be discussed and taken into account.
Leo, who devoted his first encyclical on AI and protect humanity in its wake, was asked at a press conference what the United States and China in particular should do to prevent AI from being a problem. catastrophic risks for humanity. US President Donald Trump has raised concerns about the demise of AI thug a “hoax”.
“This is an issue that I think we need to sit down and discuss,” the American pope told reporters returning from France. “We cannot sit back and pretend that nothing will happen. »
Trump has been a champion of AI, often warning that The United States must stay ahead of China in the technological arms race. He said efforts to limit the technology were part of a “conspiracy” by his political opponents.
Several AI giants, including Anthropic, have called for a slowdown in development to give security measures time to catch up with the technology’s rapid evolution. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, for example, warned that within six to twelve months, AI could be capable of leading a swarm of agents that could take over the entire Internet.
Trump had a late dinner with Amodei on Sunday, during which they discussed Americans’ concerns about technology and how to maintain American dominance, the White House said.
“If someone asked me, ‘Am I in panic mode?’ No, I’m not. I sleep at night,” Leo said. “I think the concerns raised by many AI experts and specialists need to be taken seriously.”
“I don’t think it’s ‘fake news,’ as some have said, to try to generate financial or other benefits,” Leo said.
Pope says AI is one of humanity’s greatest challenges
The pope, who called for strict regulation of AI and a slowdown in technology in his encyclical “Magnificent Humanity,” is aware of developments in this area.
Although he was at the end of a grueling four-day trip to France, Leo noted a report Monday afternoon on Nvidia introduces guardrails in AI. He also noted that the company has previously resisted any outside regulation on AI development.
Leo had identified AI as one of humanity’s greatest challenges days after his election and took the unusual step of personally launching his own encyclical alongside Anthropic co-founder Christopher Olah at a Vatican event in May. The initiative was part of the Vatican’s efforts to engage Silicon Valley on the human costs of AI.
“We must continue to invite political leaders, AI leaders, social organizations and associations to come together and look at what is already happening and what could happen in the future,” he said on Monday.
“I think just saying, ‘Oh, that’s not going to happen,’ and turning a blind eye is probably not the most responsible way to go,” he added.
This is not the first time the Pope and Trump have disagreed
With his comments Monday on the legitimacy of security concerns and AI development, Leo confirmed another point of disagreement with Trump. The two had exchanges in April over Leo’s opposition to the US-Israeli war in Iran and Leo also criticized the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
Asset met with Chinese President Xi Jinping last week In Washington, and while Xi said it was important to ensure AI was “always under human control,” Trump focused more on trying to rebrand it “superintelligence” and rejected calls for regulation. However, the two leaders agreed to explore a new “notification mechanism” for AI incidents affecting national security.
AI has become a major issue election year question in the United States like some of the countries the biggest companies rushing to build a national network of data centers as Americans in both parties increasingly sound the alarm about the impact on farmland, water supplies and electricity bills.
Pope says optimistic about solutions
Concerns about AI continue to grow inside and outside the industry and reports continue to emerge of increasingly powerful systems that solve problems beyond human capabilities, but could also become malicious and perform other, more harmful tasks.
Concerns have become so strong that the CEO of OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, said in an interview with Fortune that his company would wait until next year to start selling its shares to Wall Street investors because it is focused on security.
Leo pointed out that since he published his encyclical in May, the Vatican has received comments from people interested in participating in a broader conversation about AI. A Vatican commission is working to promote dialogue, study and investigation “to find ways to ensure that AI does not get to the point of destroying humanity or removing it from the conversation,” he said.
Leo said he was “relatively optimistic” that solutions could be found.
“I think there are enough people who are seriously interested in this and willing to look at this outside of questions of power, of who gets there first,” he said.
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AP writers Roberta Rampton and Collin Binkley in Washington contributed.
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Associated Press religion coverage receives AP support collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
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