Pope Francis has called for reflection on the potential dangers of artificial intelligence (AI) and warned that the technology has "disruptive possibilities and ambivalent effects."

The comments were published by the Vatican to announce that the theme of the next World Day of Peace of the Catholic Church – which falls on New Year’s Day – will be ‘Artificial Intelligence and Peace’.

The statement notes that “advances made in the field of AI are having a rapidly increasing impact on human activity, personal and social life, politics and the economy.”

It adds that the Pope “calls for an open dialogue on the meaning of these new technologies, endowed with disruptive possibilities and ambivalent effects,” and that he “recalls the need to be vigilant and to work so that a logic of violence and discrimination does not take root in the production and use of such devices, at the expense of the most fragile and excluded.”

“The urgent need to orient the concept and use of artificial intelligence in a responsible way, so that it may be at the service of humanity and the protection of our common home, requires that ethical reflection be extended to the sphere of education and law,” it adds.

The 86-year old Pope Francis, who has previously said he does not know how to use a computer and described himself as “a disaster” with technology, was the subject of an AI-generated viral spoof earlier this year when photos of him wearing a white puffy jacket spread on social media. While there are telltale signs of AI in the image, many argued that it could pass as authentic on an initial glance.

The Vatican partnered with Microsoft and IBM in 2020 to promote the ethical development of AI and regulation of intrusive technologies such as facial recognition.

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