Pope Francis becomes first pope to address a G7 summit, speaking on artificial intelligence

Filed retrospectively. Before the Specola kept its nightly watch, these were the observations that turned the telescope.

On June 14, 2024, Pope Francis addressed the G7 summit at Borgo Egnazia in Puglia, Italy, becoming the first pope to speak at a meeting of the group. His subject was artificial intelligence.

Francis described AI as a tool of both promise and peril, capable of widening access to knowledge and advancing research while also deepening inequality between nations and social classes. He told the assembled heads of government that political action was urgently needed to ensure the technology serves humanity, and that decisions affecting human lives must remain in human hands.

His most quoted line concerned autonomous weapons. “No machine should ever choose to take the life of a human being,” he said, calling for a ban on lethal autonomous weapons systems.

The pope also warned about generative AI specifically, arguing that such tools reproduce and rearrange existing information rather than producing genuinely new insight, with attendant risks for education and the spread of misinformation. He referenced the 2020 Rome Call for AI Ethics as a model for ethical development.

The address marked the moment papal engagement with AI moved from internal Church documents to the main stage of international politics. Within a year, the theme would shape the choice of the next pope’s name.