Artificial Intelligence, or AI, has begun to significantly change how people work, teach, learn, do research, conduct business, shop and even interact with one another. AI has also impacted the delivery of news and information.
The advent of AI has created ethical questions that Pope Leo XIV addressed shortly after his election in May, saying that this technology poses “new challenges to the defense of human dignity.”
“In our own day, the church offers everyone the treasury of its social teaching in response to another industrial revolution and to developments in the field of artificial intelligence that pose new challenges for the defense of human dignity, justice and labor,” Pope Leo said, referring to Pope Leo XIII’s 1903 encyclical Rerum Novarum that addressed workers’ rights at the advent of the industrial revolution.
Similarly, a technological revolution is threatening to uproot spiritual life in the 21st century.
“In the world of medicine, great things have happened thanks to AI, and in other fields as well,” the U.S.-born pontiff said in his recently released book, Leo XIV, Citizen of the World, Missionary of the 21st Century. “However, there is a danger in this, because you end up creating a false world and then you ask yourself: What is the truth?”
While he emphasized that the Church is not opposed to AI, the rapid development of technology is cause for concern without the proper perspective.
Those concerns extend to the delivery of news and information. He cautioned individuals to be wary of some media sources that provide misleading content. He noted in his book that he resisted the creation of an artificial version of himself that would allow visitors to a website to interact with this image and have questions answered by an avatar pope.
“If there’s anyone who shouldn’t be represented by an avatar, it seems to me, it’s the pope,” he said, according to a Catholic News Agency report.
Bishop Earl Fernandes recently asked local diocesan offices to consider the value and the potential hazards of using artificial intelligence.
The Catholic Times reported that the diocesan newspaper does not publish any AI-generated stories or photos. All of its articles and photos are produced by staff members or contributors.
Times editor Doug Bean said that AI can provide valuable assistance in researching facts and information or recording interviews, but journalists continue to operate under the mantra “trust but verify” their sources.
“Journalists are trained to question everything and they’re skeptical by nature,” he said, “and that includes fact checking in a variety of ways through research and human sources.”
A recent report by the Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) detailed some of the pitfalls of relying on AI. Among them are error-riddled news stories, plagiarism and the potential of lawsuits.
Journalists generally agree that while AI is a valuable tool, they would never rely solely on ChatGPT or any of the other AI platforms in the development of stories.
“As much as I believe that AI helps my productivity, I refuse to use it for writing,” one writer told CJR. “I want my readers to know that I am not just rattling off facts but helping them make informed decisions. If I let AI models write for me, I feel like I’ve taken away an important part of that relationship with my readers.”
Despite news delivery continuing to move into online platforms, journalists appear to be in agreement that AI is simply a tool that must not replace the human instincts of reporters and editors.
That’s not to say that newspaper and broadcast newsrooms have not been affected by the technology revolution. Staff reductions have strained the resources of news gathering entities and led to a general erosion of fact-based, unbiased media relying on AI-created stories, videos, audio and images.
Pope Leo cautioned the faithful to be on guard against threats to human dignity and justice.
“The danger is that the digital world will follow its own path and we will become pawns, or be brushed aside,” he said.
Related to: Diocese creates disaster relief response plan – Catholic Times: Read Catholic News & Stories