Friar Tech: The Vatican's top AI expert who advises Silicon Valley

Abstraction: Vatican Franciscan friar advising Pope Francis and Silicon Valley on AI ethics

Key points:

• Paolo Benanti, 50, is a Franciscan friar with an engineering background and doctorate in moral theology; serves as the Vatican's primary AI advisor to Pope Francis
• Member of the UN Advisory Body on Artificial Intelligence; heads an Italian government commission on protecting journalism from AI disinformation
• Facilitated 2023 Vatican meeting between Pope Francis and Microsoft President Brad Smith focused on AI and humanity; Francis's 2024 peace message called for an international AI ethics treaty
• Warns that leading AI tools are "trained with underpaid workers from English-speaking former colonies," risking extracting cognitive resources from the Global South
• Frames AI regulation not as limiting development but as keeping AI "compatible with democracy"
• Pope Francis concerned AI could restrict rights in mortgage decisions, asylum bids, and criminal recidivism assessments when trained on non-inclusive data

Connections: Paolo Benanti · Vatican · Microsoft · AI Ethics · AI Governance

Source: https://www.euronews.com/next/2024/01/21/friar-tech-the-vaticans-top-ai-ethics-expert-who-advises-pope-francis-the-un-and-silicon-v