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As we wait for the law to catch-up, could religion be the solution to regulating AI?

CMS Digitalbytes

4 March 2020

"Last Friday, Pope Francis was presented with a document called the 'Rome Call for AI Ethics’. It was created under the leadership of the Pontifical Academy for Life, a Vatican institution that reconciles the teachings of the Catholic Church with ever-evolving science.

The document is backed by the EU, UN, FAO and large technology companies who are at the forefront of AI development. Underlying the document is the belief that AI based technology must never be used to exploit people and be used to help support the planet and development of people. This comes at a time where the use of face recognition technology, for example, is on the rise by both companies and governments. Furthermore, the academy’s president, emphasised that ownership of AI should be shared by all, and not just experts. The document may be a response to a meeting held by Pope
Francis with a number of Silicon Valley companies last year where he warned AI could lead to a ‘new form of barbarism’. For this reason, the six principles outlined in the document are:

1.      Transparency

2.      Inclusion

3.      Responsibility

4.      Impartiality

5.      Reliability

6.      Security and Privacy

Critics may believe that the principles are a list of ‘buzzwords’ with insufficient detail to govern the development of AI. However, 2020 has already been an important year for AI governance, with the European Commission and US Department of Defense also releasing strategies. It will be interesting to see whether other religious institutions follow suit and enter the realm of technology governance."

AI Ethics Vatican Microsoft IBM

The content above was originally posted on CMS DigitalBytes - CMS lawyers sharing comment and commentary on all things tech.

Authors

Shirin Shah