The Holy See has published a new document, Antiqua et Vetera reflecting on issues arising from the spread of artificial intelligence or AI.
AI is already having a profound impact is the world of work, the paper published jointly by the Dicasteries on Doctrine and Culture noted.
“As in many other fields, AI is driving fundamental transformations across many professions, with a range of effects,” it says. “On the one hand, it has the potential to enhance expertise and productivity, create new jobs, enable workers to focus on more innovative tasks, and open new horizons for creativity and innovation.
The document continues in §67-70:
67. However, while AI promises to boost productivity by taking over mundane tasks, it frequently forces workers to adapt to the speed and demands of machines rather than machines being designed to support those who work. As a result, contrary to the advertised benefits of AI, current approaches to the technology can paradoxically deskill workers, subject them to automated surveillance, and relegate them to rigid and repetitive tasks. The need to keep up with the pace of technology can erode workers’ sense of agency and stifle the innovative abilities they are expected to bring to their work.
68. AI is currently eliminating the need for some jobs that were once performed by humans. If AI is used to replace human workers rather than complement them, there is a “substantial risk of disproportionate benefit for the few at the price of the impoverishment of many.” Additionally, as AI becomes more powerful, there is an associated risk that human labour may lose its value in the economic realm. This is the logical consequence of the technocratic paradigm: a world of humanity enslaved to efficiency, where, ultimately, the cost of humanity must be cut. Yet, human lives are intrinsically valuable, independent of their economic output.
Nevertheless, the “current model,” Pope Francis explains, “does not appear to favour an investment in efforts to help the slow, the weak, or the less talented to find opportunities in life.” In light of this, “we cannot allow a tool as powerful and indispensable as Artificial Intelligence to reinforce such a paradigm, but rather, we must make Artificial Intelligence a bulwark against its expansion.”
69. It is important to remember that “the order of things must be subordinate to the order of persons, and not the other way around.” Human work must not only be at the service of profit but at “the service of the whole human person […] taking into account the person’s material needs and the requirements of his or her intellectual, moral, spiritual, and religious life.” In this context, the Church recognizes that work is “not only a means of earning one’s daily bread” but is also “an essential dimension of social life” and “a means […] of personal growth, the building of healthy relationships, self-expression and the exchange of gifts. Work gives us a sense of shared responsibility for the development of the world, and ultimately, for our life as a people.”
70. Since work is a “part of the meaning of life on this earth, a path to growth, human development and personal fulfilment,” “the goal should not be that technological progress increasingly replaces human work, for this would be detrimental to humanity”—rather, it should promote human labour. Seen in this light, AI should assist, not replace, human judgment. Similarly, it must never degrade creativity or reduce workers to mere “cogs in a machine.” Therefore, “respect for the dignity of laborers and the importance of employment for the economic well-being of individuals, families, and societies, for job security and just wages, ought to be a high priority for the international community as these forms of technology penetrate more deeply into our workplaces.”
SEE
Have you used AI at work in your personal life?
How do you find it?
Has it affected the way you work?
JUDGE
Is AI having a positive or negative impact as far as your own work is concerned?
What do you think of this Vatican reflection?
Do you agree with Pope Francis that the current “model” is not helping the poor, disadvantaged and weak?
ACT
What action could you and/or your group take on these issues?
Try to decide upon a small concrete action.
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Antiqua et Vetera (Vatican.va)