AI is not “an artificial form of human intelligence, but a product of it”
By Salvatore Cernuzio (Vatican News)/ITV staff
The Pope’s warnings about Artificial Intelligence in re cent years provide the outline for Antiqua et Nova, the “Note on the relationship between artificial intelligence and human intelligence,” released on January 28, that offers the results of a mutual reflection between the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Dicastery for Culture and Education. The new document is ad dressed especially to “those en trusted with transmitting the faith,” but also to “those who share the conviction that scientific and technological advances should be directed toward serving the human person and the common good” (Paragraph 5).
In 117 paragraphs, Antiqua et Nova highlights challenges and opportunities of the development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the fields of education, economy, work, health, relationships, and warfare.
Specifically, the document lists not only the risks but also the progress associated with AI, which it encourages as “part of the collaboration of man and woman with God.” (Paragraph 2)
However, it does not avoid the concerns that come with all innovations, whose effects are still unpredictable.
AI and Human Intelligence
Several paragraphs of the Note are devoted to the distinction between AI and human intelligence.
Quoting Pope Francis, the document affirms that “the very use of the word ‘intelligence’ in connection to AI ‘can prove misleading’… in light of this, AI should not be seen as an artificial form of human intelligence, but as a product of it” (35). “Like any product of human ingenuity, AI can also be directed toward positive or negative ends” (40). “AI ‘could introduce important innovations’” (48) but it also risks aggravating situations of discrimination, poverty, “digital divide,” and social inequalities (52). “the concentration of the power over mainstream AI applications in the hands of a few powerful companies raises significant ethical concerns,” including “the risk that AI could be manipulated for personal or corporate gain or to direct public opinion for the benefit of a specific industry” (53).
The Vatican noted that underlying AI “is the implicit assumption that the term ‘intelligence’ can be used in the same way to refer to both human intelligence and AI.”
But, it remarked, “In the case of humans, intelligence is a faculty that pertains to the person in his or her entirety, whereas in the context of AI, ‘intelligence’ is understood functionally.”
With reference to war, Antiqua et Nova stresses that autonomous and lethal weapons systems capable of “identifying and striking targets without direct human intervention are a “cause for grave ethical concern” (100). It notes that Pope Francis has called for their use to be banned since they pose “an ‘existential risk’ by having the potential to act in ways that could threaten the survival of entire regions or even of humanity itself” (101).
Human relations
On human relations, the document notes that AI can lead to “harmful isolation” (58), that “anthropomorphizing AI” poses problems for children’s growth (60) and that misrepresenting AI as a person is “a grave ethical violation” if this is done “for fraudulent purposes.”
Similarly, “using AI to deceive in other contexts—such as education or in human relationships, including the sphere of sexuality—is also to be considered immoral and requires careful oversight” (62).
The same vigilance is called for in the economic-financial sphere. “Antiqua et Nova” notes that, especially in the field of labour, “while AI promises to boost productivity… current approaches to the technology can paradoxically deskill workers, subject them to automated surveillance, and relegate them to rigid and repetitive tasks” (67).
The Note also dedicates ample space to the issue of healthcare. Recalling the “immense potential” in various applications in the medical field, it warns that if AI were to replace the doctor-patient relationship, it would risk “worsening the loneliness that often accompanies illness” (73).
In the field of education, “Antiqua et Nova” notes that “AI presents both opportunities and challenges.” If used prudently, AI can improve access to education and offer “immediate feedback” to students (80). One problem is that many programmes “merely provide answers instead of prompting students to arrive at answers themselves or write text for themselves”; which can lead to a failure to develop critical thinking skills (82).
On the subject of fake news, the document warns of the serious risk of AI “generating manipulated content and false information” (85), which becomes worse when it is spread with the aim of deceiving or causing harm (87). Antiqua et Nova insists that “Those who produce and share AI-generated content should always exercise diligence in verifying the truth of what they disseminate and, in all cases, should ‘avoid the sharing of words and images that are degrading of human beings, that promote hatred and intolerance, that debase the goodness and intimacy of human sexuality or that exploit the weak and vulnerable’” (89).
On privacy and control, the Note points out that some types of data can go so far as to touch “upon the individual’s interiority, perhaps even their conscience” (90), with the danger of everything becoming “a kind of spectacle to be examined and inspected” (92). Digital surveillance “can also be misused to exert control over the lives of believers and how they express their faith” (90).
On the topic of the care of creation, Antiqua et Nova says, “AI has many promising applications for improving our relationship with our ‘common home’” (95). “At the same time, current AI models and the hardware required to support them consume vast amounts of energy and water, significantly contributing to CO2 emissions and straining resources” (96).
The Relationship with God
Adoration of the image of the Beast from the Apocalypse Tapestry of Angers, France
The last topic raised by the Vatican document relates to A.I. and humanity’s relationship with God.
Here it states that “the presumption of substituting for God an artifact of human making is idolatry, a practice Scripture explicitly warns against (e.g., Ex. 20:4; 32:1-5; 34:17). Moreover, AI may prove even more seductive than traditional idols for, unlike idols that ‘have mouths but do not speak; eyes, but do not see; ears, but do not hear’ (Ps. 115:5-6), AI can ‘speak,’ or at least gives the illusion of doing so (cf. Rev. 13:15).”
This last critique of AI is what worries some Catholic commentators the most. Daniel O’Connor, podcast host and author of The First and Last Deception, points out that AI creators are now talking about the “singularity” — a turning point in AI development in which AI will become “AGI” or “Artificial General Intelligence,” a level of AI that supposedly surpasses human intelligence, and which, some believe, will signal the acquisition of machine consciousness.
Critics like O’Connor worry that AGI, while still a human artifact, will be able to mimic a being with its own intellectual powers that can become an object of worship like the golden calf of Moses’ time.
In fact, he goes on to say, such technology could even be ripe for control by malignant spirits, and notes that several of the biggest tech gurus in the world are also dabblers in occult practices.
O’Connor notes that Antiqua et Nova itself cites Revelation 13:15, which says: “The second beast was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that the image could speak, and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed.”
“The Vatican is specifically connecting AI to the beast in Revelation,” O’Connor says, “and that’s huge. The Vatican hasn’t exactly been sounding the apocalyptic alarm, unless it’s about global warming, perhaps… so if the Vatican is suddenly, finally, beginning to issue warnings about that… it’s very rare, but it did just happen.”
It is worth noting that the Catholic Vice President of the U.S., JD Vance, told world leaders at an international AI conference in February that he favored a “deregulatory flavor” and “regulatory regimes that foster the creation of AI technology rather than strangle it.” The Trump administration is apparently taking a pro-AI stance that may be increasingly at odds with that of the Vatican. Hopefully it does not thereby end up opposing the spiritual good of humanity.
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