The Pope says AI could lead humanity to "barbarism"

At a conference at the Vatican last week, Pope Francis warned a group of Silicon Valley execs that in the wrong hands, artificial intelligence could have devastating consequences for humanity. "If mankind's so-called technological progress were to become an enemy of the common good, this would lead to an unfortunate regression to a form of barbarism dictated by the law of the strongest," he said, according to Reuters. The development of advanced AI can "raise increasingly significant implications in all areas of human activity," the Pope said. He also called for "open and concrete discussions" to develop "both theoretical and practical moral principles." The conference also grappled with the March 2019 attacks in Christchurch, New Zealand, and how social media platforms helped spread footage taken during the shootings, according to TIME.