Parolin: Artificial intelligence should serve humanity, not profit
Parolin highlights the benefits of AI but warns of the risks of its use being driven by profit, emphasising the need to preserve human and spiritual values.
“I’m not a technologist; I only recently discovered artificial intelligence, and it left me absolutely astounded – because talking to this anonymous person who seems like a real person and who actually replies to you really took me by surprise.” Cardinal Pietro Parolin , Secretary of State , Pietro Parolin, made these remarks this morning in Oria, in the province of Brindisi, whilst meeting with the press. “For the Church, the same principles apply as always when it comes to progress and new discoveries, which have been particularly rapid in recent decades. Humanity has always moved forward, but it used to take a long time; now everything has become incredibly fast.”
Ambivalent technology
“In themselves,” explained Parolin, “these are good things; even artificial intelligence, I am told, helps, for example, to summarise documents that would otherwise take months and months to read. ‘However, they are also ambivalent,’ he noted, ‘and always present limitations, which must be borne in mind and addressed precisely in line with what the Pope says in “Magnifica humanitas”: namely, to preserve what is human, to ensure they are at the service of people, at the service of humanity, of the common good, and of human development, and that they are not, instead, used for other purposes, starting with profit. ‘Unfortunately,’ concluded Parolin, ‘all too often these things are used merely to make more money, rather than to support and help people.’
‘Not everything in the Church is perfect, but it must be loved’
‘As Saint Cyprian said,’ Parolin recalled, ‘“no one can have God as their father unless they have the Church as their mother”.’ We really ought to rediscover the Church as our mother too, and love her as one loves a mother, accepting everything about her. Even if, perhaps at times – how shall I put it? – we do not like her, or she adopts an attitude that we do not appreciate, we still love her. Love is not blind: it also sees the flaws that exist and helps to correct them. This is true of the Church too, because clearly not everything in the Church is perfect. Only Jesus Christ is perfect.”
