Apostle puts stake in the ground on AI’s threat to faith, religious freedom

Sitting on a bench in the Sistine Chapel on Monday night, Elder Gerrit W. Gong contemplated two paintings in conversation with one other.

On one wall of the chapel is Cosimo Rosselli’s depiction of Moses descending from Mount Sinai with the Ten Commandments — the old law.

Directly across the chapel is Rosselli’s painting of Jesus Christ teaching the Sermon on the Mount and announcing a new law — love thy neighbor as thyself.

The next morning, Elder Gong opened his talk at a Vatican City summit on the age of artificial intelligence by quoting a document titled “Antiqua et Nova” — “ancient and new.”

The Holy See issued the statement in January with the subtitle, “Note on the Relationship Between Artificial Intelligence and Human Intelligence.”

Elder Gong summarized part of the document’s introduction.

“Our human stewardship for the created world includes governing the gift of intelligence so it enhances human progress and the common good,” he said.

The takeaway is crystal clear. The age of AI is so important to the future of the world, to humanity and to faith and families that a senior leader of the Church of Jesus Christ traveled to the Eternal City to deliver a major paper on the subject.

Elder Gong also engaged in discussions with a dream team of about 40 global faith leaders, academics, ethicists and AI experts.

One of those experts told me that AI is the greatest existing threat to religious freedom in the world.

They all shared real concerns that AI is being developed by tech companies racing to beat each other by putting their tech ahead of other considerations like faith, protecting children, national security and more.

Elder Gong put a stake in the ground.

“We gathered here today share a deep commitment that AI’s moral compass not be dictated solely by technology or the small group developing the technology,” he said.

He also shared news of the launch of a multi-faith, multi-university task force that will develop an evaluation tool that will test how accurately any AI program portrays faith.

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Behind the Scenes

During Elder Gong’s visit to the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel, he jumped into what a man he helped called Christlike service.

Ryan Anderson was on the tour with his wife and their baby, who slept peacefully in a stroller. When the tour group reached a set of stairs to go up to the museum that leads to the chapel, the tour guide asked if Anderson would be able to get the stroller up the stairs.

Elder Gong immediately offered to help carry the stroller with Anderson, a Catholic who is president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center.

At the end of the museum’s long hallways, Elder Gong helped Anderson carry the stroller down the sets of stairs that lead to the Sistine Chapel.

For the record, the Andersons’ little child slept soundly and reverently through the entire tour.

 

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