Recognising that he was the victim of a deepfake photo, Pope Francis reiterated his plea for global regulation of artificial intelligence on Wednesday, cautioning against the “perverse” risks of the technology.
In his speech on the World Day of Social Communications, which the Roman Catholic Church is celebrating on May 12 worldwide, Francis discussed his hopes and concerns regarding artificial intelligence (AI).
His three-page letter was generally bleak, warning of “cognitive pollution” that may distort reality, promote false narratives, and lock people in ideological echo chambers. He did, however, urge people to temporarily “set aside catastrophic predictions and their numbing effects” concerning new things.
“We need but think of the long-standing problem of disinformation in the form of fake news, which today can employ
‘deepfakes’, namely the creation and diffusion of images that appear perfectly plausible but false – I too have been an object of this,” Francis wrote.
He apparently was referring to a fake image of him that went viral on social media last year. It depicted him wear an ankle-length white puffer coat posted by someone who used an image generating programme.
Francis also spoke of fake “audio messages that use a person’s voice to say things which that person never said”.
On Monday, the attorney general in the U.S. state of New Hampshire said his office had opened an investigation into the origins of fake robocalls that simulated President Joe Biden’s voice and encouraged voters not to cast ballots in the presidential primary on Tuesday.
“The technology of simulation behind these programmes can be useful in certain specific fields, but it becomes perverse when it distorts our relationship with others and with reality,” the pope wrote.
He renewed a call he made last month for a legally binding international treaty to regulate AI.
In Wednesday’s message he spoke of the “associated pathologies” of AI, including a decrease in pluralism and a proliferation of “groupthink,” where consensus positions are taken without considering outside criticism or alternatives.
Francis also spoke of the danger of AI in the media, particularly in the reporting of war, which he said could be subjected to a parallel war waged through disinformation campaigns.
AI must support and not eliminate the role of journalism on the ground, he said.
