I’m surprised how pleased I am by this. From the space of possible performative signals the vatican could give, this is a good one to see. While unavoidably performative I hope it can be of use for those who already see the vatican as a reliable moral guide—as someone who does not, I find very little in this document to disagree with. I wonder if it might be too vague to have a high impact, but in terms of getting a stance out there I imagine this might be useful in communicating with some circles.
Speaking as a Catholic, this won’t have much impact but mostly because the Catholic Church as a whole is already extremely wary about AI. It’s good that it is explicitly written at the highest level though (note that what you feel is vague is just Vatican-speak).
However there is still no understanding about how powerful new AI models will be. In particular Catholics in general are skeptical about the possibility of AGI (mainly for philosophical/theological reasons). Their concerns will side more with AI-ethic rather than AI-alignment, but they will be natural allies for any “pause” or “slow-down” movement.
I’m surprised how pleased I am by this. From the space of possible performative signals the vatican could give, this is a good one to see. While unavoidably performative I hope it can be of use for those who already see the vatican as a reliable moral guide—as someone who does not, I find very little in this document to disagree with. I wonder if it might be too vague to have a high impact, but in terms of getting a stance out there I imagine this might be useful in communicating with some circles.
Speaking as a Catholic, this won’t have much impact but mostly because the Catholic Church as a whole is already extremely wary about AI. It’s good that it is explicitly written at the highest level though (note that what you feel is vague is just Vatican-speak).
However there is still no understanding about how powerful new AI models will be. In particular Catholics in general are skeptical about the possibility of AGI (mainly for philosophical/theological reasons). Their concerns will side more with AI-ethic rather than AI-alignment, but they will be natural allies for any “pause” or “slow-down” movement.