VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — A new text issued by the Vatican on Tuesday calls for the “ethical” use of artificial intelligence, while warning of “critical concerns” such technology presents.
Entitled Antiqua et Nova, the text is a collaborative effort by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Dicastery for Culture and Education. As such it is signed by the prefects of both dicasteries, namely Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández and Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça.
Published January 28 without press conference or any other formal notice – the text was delivered to the Vatican press corps only 12 hours prior – the document is the latest in an increasing series of efforts from the Vatican to regulate the use of artificial intelligence (AI).
However, despite the Vatican’s attempt to weigh in and join the blossoming international debate about the use of AI, the lengthy text prompts significant questions about the efficacy of such an endeavor.
Vatican urges caution about use of AI
The text is designed to address the “anthropological and ethical challenges raised by AI,” as stated in the opening paragraphs. With 117 sections and over 200 footnotes, the document is indeed hefty, and is replete with praise for the ways in which AI can assist aspects of life, while also warning about the grave dangers it poses.
Written jointly between the doctrinal and educational offices of the Roman Curia, the text is primarily addressed to Catholics “entrusted with transmitting the faith – including parents, teachers, pastors, and bishops,” though also invited a “broader audience” to study it in order to ensure AI is directed to “serving the human person and the common good.”
Antiqua et Nova outlined that though AI possessed “sophisticated abilities to perform tasks,” it did not have the ability “to think,” and thus must be treated accordingly as a product of human hands rather than something above mankind in the order of creation.
AI, the Vatican admitted, “can simulate aspects of human reasoning and perform specific tasks with incredible speed and efficiency.” However this ability comprises “only a fraction of the broader capacities of the human mind,” the text added, since human intelligence encompasses a much wider range of stimuli including moral, spiritual, and emotional aspects.
Due to AI’s great speed and ability to “generate new ‘artifacts,’” the Vatican warned the technology “raises critical concerns about AI’s potential role in the growing crisis of truth in the public forum.”
“AI could be used as an aid to human dignity if it helps people understand complex concepts or directs them to sound resources that support their search for the truth,” reads the text, but the technology “presents a serious risk of generating manipulated content and false information, which can easily mislead people due to its resemblance to the truth.”
The Vatican also warned about potential use of AI to promote global conflict and increase surveillance of people designed to control their freedom. Such usage, the text noted, “is unjustifiable.”
“Technology offers remarkable tools to oversee and develop the world’s resources. However, in some cases, humanity is increasingly ceding control of these resources to machines.”
Whilst aware of the technical ability of AI, the Vatican described it as being only “a pale reflection of humanity – it is crafted by human minds, trained on human-generated material, responsive to human input, and sustained through human labor.”
The text also warned of putting undue trust in something which is ultimately “fallible,” going so far as to suggest that over-reliance on AI can become a form of idolatry:
AI cannot possess many of the capabilities specific to human life, and it is also fallible. By turning to AI as a perceived ‘Other’ greater than itself, with which to share existence and responsibilities, humanity risks creating a substitute for God. However, it is not AI that is ultimately deified and worshipped, but humanity itself – which, in this way, becomes enslaved to its own work.
Why such a text from the Vatican?
Despite the text’s many warnings about the unethical use of AI, or the inherent dangers which the technology itself proposes, the overarching question which stems from the document concerns its utility. Why did the Vatican go to such lengths to compose and publish such a text, and who will actually take notice of it?
Certainly, the document forms part of the steadily growing wealth of material stemming from the Vatican and Pope Francis on the subject. Francis has devoted a number of key addresses to AI in recent years, and notably attended a June 2024 meeting of the G7 Nations devoted to AI.
READ: Italian Prime Minister Meloni announces Pope Francis to attend G7 meeting on AI
In an initiative begun in 2020, the Holy See launched the “Rome Call for AI Ethics,” which has been pioneered by the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy for Life, alongside Microsoft, IBM, FAO, and the Italian Ministry of Innovation.
Together, those initial bodies behind the Rome Call for AI Ethics signed a joint document, which they said is “developed to support an ethical approach to Artificial Intelligence and promote a sense of responsibility among organizations, governments, institutions and the private sector with the aim to create a future in which digital innovation and technological progress serve human genius and creativity and not their gradual replacement.”
Since then, the supporters for the Vatican’s endeavor have grown in number to include a number of universities and foundations.
But with the Vatican’s latest text, seasoned Vatican watchers will surely be asking themselves what the purpose of it is.
Firstly, it is chiefly addressed to teachers of the Catholic faith – who are not spending their professional lives involved in developing or using AI. If necessary, certain notes or memos could be sent to erring dioceses who are employing AI systems in ways that are damaging the faith, but to devote the work of two whole Vatican departments to write a text of such length seems a questionable use of resources.
Secondly, the position of the Vatican – particularly the doctrinal office – to pronounce on matters about AI is hardly likely to be actually respected by the technological world. Certainly, large companies such as Microsoft are more than happy to collaborate with the Vatican on a variety of projects, leading to fantastic PR images and trips to Rome for the companies, along with a renewed marketing drive at the Catholic customer base.
But if the Vatican thinks that the world of technology has been patiently waiting for such a document before deciding how to use AI, then it will be disappointed.
Those who wish to use AI in ways that do not serve the common good will do so, and are already doing so. Those who do not seek to do so hardly needed such a lengthy text from the Vatican confirming them in their belief.
Antiqua et Nova – while indeed responding to certain real concerns – is long overdue, far too long, and unlikely to be taken seriously by those it is most necessary for.