Sounds twisted Latin to my ears. Quidnunc ?

Mea culpa ; that was to grab your attention and the mission, accomplished. Now, two things: first, the phrase is not in Latin, it is, I mean the non-twisted part, is in Aramaic, the language Jesus reportedly spoke. Next, the real phrase, “ Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani ?” is all about a delicate moment in the Bible when Jesus cries and asks The Father, “Oh God, Oh God, why have you forsaken me?” Interestingly, the Catholic Church seems to be asking artificial intelligence (AI) much the same, if last week’s developments are any indication.

What happened?

The Pope and his Church lament that some technologies have intruded so deep into our lives that they are damaging humans beyond repair. If corrective measures are not taken immediately, the future of humanity and all the values that have guided it all these years will be forsaken. To put it simply, the Church thinks AI and deep-technologies will give up on precious human values and, more importantly, ethics, if there is no plan.

So what’s the plan, Pope?

Well, as another Pope (Alexander, the poet) put it eons ago, “Order is heaven’s first law” and the Church feels it should venture out and join hands with technology companies to create a disciplined approach to the growth and study of AI. Just last week, the Pontifical Academy for Life, which is a highly influential think tank under the Vatican, joined hands with the European Union, United Nations, IBM and Microsoft to sign a marquee document that calls for ethical development of AI.

Interesting, tell me more about this!

The conference was attended by Microsoft president Brad Smith and IBM Executive Vice-President John Kelly. The document, titled cheekily as ‘Rome Call for AI Ethics’ and reviewed by Pope Francis, says AI-based technology must never be used to “exploit people in any way, especially those who are most vulnerable”. The document adds that AI must be used to help people develop their abilities and to support the planet. A widespread awareness of the use, meaning and impact of technologies is necessary, because technological development affects the whole human family.

That’s nice to hear. Looks like a big leap from the Intelligent Design days.

Well, if you have noticed, over the past 2,000 years, the Church has had a very complex relationship with science and technology. As Brian Patrick Green of Santa Clara University in California suggests in his recent, and interesting, paper The Catholic Church and Technological Progress: Past, Present, and Future , within contemporary Christianity there is a “spectrum of responses towards technology, ranging from the radically optimistic progressivism of the Mormon trans-humanists to the technological scepticism of the Amish.” Interestingly, the Church, especially under the liberal Pope Francis, is trying to strike a mid-path by becoming a promoter of good tech and a campaigner against evil tech.

Sounds good to me.

In fact, that’s a big deal for a Church that tried and killed Galileo during the Inquisition. But to be fair, the Church has been an active promoter of technologies it felt would benefit its causes, from printing to social media. The Pope has over 18 million followers on Twitter. But time and again, the Pope, known for his radical views on issues relating to human life, work and beyond, has expressed concerns over the way people blindly take to tech and other charms of capitalism and advised the herd to exercise caution. Looks like the new Pontifical Academy resolution is the latest in his efforts towards that direction.

So, is a Papal Decree on AI in the offing?

Maybe and if one comes that’d be a big deal, considering that the Catholic Church, with its devotee base of more than 1.5 billion people and a multitude of educational institutions and other bodies, can really influence how AI progresses. Hence, it seems the technology community will take note of the salient features of the joint declaration, which calls for the ethical development of algorithms (algor-ethics) and curbing AI being used to extract data for commercial or political ends and ending abuse of facial recognition technology. If you have noticed, all these seem a big ask given the way Big Tech is pushing its business. So the question is, when God meets Code, who’ll blink first?

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