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50 Years Ago, the Future Benedict XVI Warned Us About the Dangers of AI...

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‘When functions are all that exist,’ said Father Joseph Ratzinger in 1973, ‘man, too, is nothing more than a function.’

The theme for this year’s World Day of Peace, “Artificial Intelligence and Peace,” delved into the “urgent questions” and “consequences” of ever-progressing digital technologies. This is a timely theme, of course, as AI is now seemingly everywhere. The Pope’s message continued into a brief exploration into the “technology of the future: machines that ‘learn’ by themselves.” The document proposes a limit on the “technocratic paradigm.” It says:

Human beings are, by definition, mortal; by proposing to overcome every limit through technology, in an obsessive desire to control everything, we risk losing control over ourselves; in the quest for an absolute freedom, we risk falling into the spiral of a ‘technological dictatorship.’
Technological dictatorship — the kind of phrase Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI might have employed if faced with the realities of an omnipresent artificial intelligence.

But, in fact, the late prophet from Bavaria did foresee the rise of the digital sphere — and its threat to overpower its human inventors — more than 50 years ago.

Continued below.