Rome
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The Vatican has gathered a mix of thinkers and music artists as they are trying to influence both the development of artificial intelligence and the future of humanity.
The summit, held on Friday and Saturday at the Human Fraternity, called out Nobel Prize winners to discuss everything from agriculture to economics and sports.
Participating in the AI discussion was Will.i.am, the Black Eyed Peas frontman who has been involved in AI since 2012 after attending a class of late Patrick Winston, a computer scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The rapper and singer who leads a technology company called Fyi.ai and supports computer science education in Los Angeles believes the Church and Pope Leo XIII have a role to play in developing AI that serves humanity.
He told CNN that Vatican events provided “safe shelter” for brainstorming with AI. “People demand themselves centered around what’s good for humanity,” he says, “they build systems for communities and systems for improving society. That’s thesis on why they come to the Vatican.”
He added: “I think governments need to implement some regulations and governance to ensure society is safe, rather than curbing growth.”
For several years, the Vatican has sought more ethical AI through meetings with leaders of high-tech companies, and Pope Francis called for a “binding international treaty” in 2023 to prevent harmful practices and encourage the best practices.
The latest discussions held at the Artiri Palace in Rome covered similar themes as Jeffrey Hinton, known as the “Godfather of AI”, authors of MIT Max Tegmark, Jimena Sofia Viberos Alvarez, and Marco Trento, the Executive Translator, the Translator for Ethical AI, and the Translator for Major Voices for the Translator for Ethical AI.
Trombetti, which uses a combination of AI and human translators, told CNN that AI development risks creating “digital disparities” between countries that have access to technology and inaccessible. He described the role of the Vatican in the debate as important as Pope Leo is a “magnet of talent” that has “an incredible power to spread ideas.”
The latest summit was in work before Pope Francis’ death in April, sparking the process of selecting his successor. The organizers then scrambled to prepare the event. This included a roundtable of news media attended by CNN CEO and Chairman Mark Thompson and attended by Nobel Peace Prize winner and CEO of Rappler News Site Maria Ressa.
On Saturday, the “Constitutional Conference of Humans” was predominantly sided with Grassa Macher, the widow of late South African President Nelson Mandela, with several Nobel Prize winners present.
While dominated by Italian-centric speeches, the event highlighted the convening power of the Vatican and the Pope. Russa, who was awarded to Nobel for her efforts to protect freedom of expression in the Philippines, told CNN, “If we don’t talk about humanity in the Vatican, we don’t know what else we’ll say.”
On her part, Machel said the event showed leaders had the ability to “redesign the world” to protect lives and to ensure people had jobs, food and shelter.
Pope Leo spoke to participants at the Vatican Apostles Palace on Friday, where he urged them to “identify local and international ways of developing new forms of social charity and to see “the image of God, the poor, refugees and even the enemy.” Later that night, he sent a message of thanks to the people to the island of Lampedusa in Italy, a frequent gateway for immigrants from North Africa. In 2013, Pope Francis made his first visit to Lampedusa outside of Rome.
Will talks about Leo’s election as the first American pope. I.AM said it was “beautiful” given “everything that is happening in America.” On Friday, an undocumented migrant in the Chicago suburb was fatally shot dead by immigrants and ICE officers after resisting arrest. “I hope we have gone through tough times in Chicago and the cities inside, with a human, sensitive approach,” Will.I.Am said. “The fact that there is a Pope from Chicago gives me hope.”
The Saturday evening concert at St. Peter Square is open to everyone, but is the first to be held at the Vatican. The lineup includes John Legend, Teddy Swims and Karol G, with no return to performance for the Hip-Hop Duo Clipse. Will.i.am said those who weren’t performing wanted the crowd to sing one of Black Eyed Peas’ most famous songs. – “Because the world needs it.”
Meanwhile, when the summit was held, Pope Leo received the diplomatic qualifications of the new US ambassador Brian Burch of Holy Sea. Birch, a native of Chicago, was the co-founder of the Catholic Voting, a political organisation that supported President Donald Trump in the 2024 election. While presenting his qualifications, he gave Leo a cake this Sunday to mark the Pope’s 70th birthday. According to the Holy See See X account, during their meeting, the Pope “emphasized that our political differences will never be resolved by violence, and told Ambassador Burch that he is praying for Mr. Kirk and the widow of his children.”
