24/05/12 [담화] 2024년 제58차 홍보 주일 교황 담화 - 인공 지능과 마음의 지혜: 온전한 인간 커뮤니케이션을 향하여

[성기화 요셉]

프란치스코 교황 성하의 
제58차 홍보 주일 담화
(2024년 5월 12일)

인공 지능과 마음의 지혜: 
온전한 인간 커뮤니케이션을 향하여

사랑하는 형제자매 여러분! 

인공 지능 체계의 발전은, 제가 올해 세계 평화의 날 담화에서도 성찰한 주제로서, 정보와 커뮤니케이션 세계에 그리고 이를 통하여 사회생활의 일정 부분의 토대에 근본적인 영향을 주고 있습니다. 이러한 변화는 해당 분야 전문가들만이 아니라 모든 이에게 영향을 줍니다. 우리 대부분의 이해와 인식 능력을 넘어서는 활동과 잠재력을 갖춘 이 놀라운 혁신의 빠른 전파는 열광과 동시에 혼란을 가져오는 것임이 드러났습니다. 이는 필연적으로 인간 존재의 본성과 특수성, 그리고 인공 지능 시대에 ‘호모 사피엔스’(homo sapiens) 종(種)의 미래에 관한 더욱 심오한 질문들로 이어집니다. 어떻게 우리는 온전한 인간으로 남을 수 있고 또 이 문화적 변화가 선에 봉사하도록 이끌 수 있겠습니까? 

마음에서 출발하기

무엇보다 먼저, 재앙에 대한 예측과 우리를 무력하게 만드는 그 영향력에 관한 생각은 제쳐 둘 필요가 있습니다. 로마노 과르디니는 한 세기 전에 이미 기술과 인류에 관하여 성찰했습니다. 과르디니는 우리에게, “사라져 버릴 운명인 아름다운 세상을 보존”하고자 “새로운 것”을 거부하지 말라고 촉구했습니다. 아울러 그는 예언자적으로 경고했습니다. “우리는 끊임없이 되어 감의 과정 안에 있습니다. 저마다의 길에서 우리는 …… 열린 마음으로 그러나 또한 그 안에 있는 파괴적이고 비인간적인 모든 것을 민감하게 느끼면서 이 과정으로 들어가야 합니다.” 그리고 이렇게 끝을 맺습니다. “이는 기술적, 과학적, 정치적 문제들입니다. 그러나 인간성에서 시작하지 않으면 이 문제들을 해결할 수 없습니다. 더욱 깊이 있는 영성과 새로운 자유와 내면을 선사받은 새로운 인간 유형의 모습을 갖추어야 합니다.” 1)

오늘날 기술은 풍요로워져도 인간성은 빈약해질 위험이 있는 이때에 우리의 성찰은 인간의 마음에서 출발하여야 합니다. 2) 현실을 바라보는 영적 관점을 갖추어야만, 마음의 지혜를 회복해야만, 우리는 우리 시대의 새로움을 읽고 해석할 수 있으며 온전한 인간 커뮤니케이션으로 가는 길을 재발견할 수 있습니다. 성경에서는 마음을 자유의 자리이며 삶의 가장 중요한 결정이 이루어지는 자리로 봅니다. 마음은 온전함과 일치의 상징이지만, 우리의 다양한 감정과 열망과 꿈도 불러일으킵니다. 무엇보다도 마음은 우리가 하느님을 만나는 내적 자리입니다. 그러므로 마음의 지혜는, 우리가 전체와 부분, 우리의 결정과 그 결과, 우리의 고결함과 취약함, 우리의 과거와 미래, 우리의 개성과 더 큰 공동체 안의 소속감을 한데 통합할 수 있게 하는 덕(德)입니다.

이러한 마음의 지혜는 그를 찾는 이들이 쉽게 발견하고 그를 사랑하는 이들이 쉽게 알아볼 수 있도록 자신을 드러냅니다. 마음의 지혜는 자기를 갈망하는 이들에게 미리 다가가며, 자기에게 맞갖은 이들을 스스로 찾아 돌아다닙니다(지혜 6,12-16 참조). 마음의 지혜는 충고를 기꺼이 받아들이는 이들(잠언 13,10 참조), 유순하고 듣는 마음을 받은 이들(1열왕 3,9 참조)과 함께합니다. 성령의 선물인 마음의 지혜는, 우리가 하느님의 눈으로 사물을 보고 관계와 상황과 사건을 이해하며 그 참된 의미를 발견하게 합니다. 이러한 지혜가 없다면 삶은 따분해집니다. 지혜의 라틴말 어원 ‘사페레’(sapere)가 명사 ‘사포르’(sapor)와 상통하듯, 삶에 ‘맛’(savour)을 더하는 것은 바로 지혜이기 때문입니다. 

기회와 위험

이러한 지혜는 기계에서 찾을 수 없습니다. 과학 문헌에서 쓰는 좀 더 적확한 용어인 ‘머신 러닝’(machine learning)을 ‘인공 지능’이라는 용어가 이제 대신하게 되었지만, ‘지능’이라는 말의 사용 자체는 오해를 부를 수 있습니다. 기계가 데이터의 저장과 연결에서 인간에 비하면 한없이 큰 능력을 지닌다는 점은 분명합니다. 그러나 인간만이 그러한 데이터의 의미를 파악할 수 있습니다. 이는 그저 기계를 좀 더 인간적으로 보이게 하는 문제가 아니라, 전능(全能)이라는 환상이 불러온 최면에서 인류를 깨우는 문제입니다. 이러한 환상은, 우리 인간이 모든 사회적 유대 관계에서 분리되고 피조물인 자기 처지를 잊은 채 완전히 자율적이고 자기중심적인 주체라는 믿음에 기반합니다.  

인간 존재는 자기 자신으로는 부족하다는 사실을 언제나 인식하고, 최대한 모든 수단을 이용하여 그 취약성에서 벗어날 길을 찾아 왔습니다. 팔의 연장 수단으로 사용한 선사 시대의 유물부터, 소통하는 말의 연장 수단으로 사용한 미디어를 거쳐, 이제 우리는 인간 사고를 보조하는 고도의 복잡한 기계도 만들 수 있게 되었습니다. 그러나 하느님 없이 하느님처럼 되고자 했던 원초적 유혹(창세 3장 참조), 곧 하느님의 선물로 거저 받은 것을 다른 이들과 함께 누리기보다 혼자만의 힘으로 움켜쥐고자 하는 유혹은 이 모든 도구를 남용하게 할 수 있습니다. 

우리 마음이 기우는 데에 따라 손 닿는 모든 것이 기회가 되기도 위협이 되기도 합니다. 소통과 친교를 위하여 창조된 우리의 몸 자체가 공격의 도구가 될 수 있습니다. 마찬가지로, 우리 인류의 모든 기술적 확장은 사랑 가득한 봉사의 수단이 될 수도 있지만 적대적인 지배의 수단이 될 수도 있는 것입니다. 인공 지능 체계는 무지를 극복하고 서로 다른 민족과 세대 사이의 정보 교류를 증진하는 데에 도움을 줄 수 있습니다. 예를 들어, 인공 지능은 대대로 이어온 방대한 지식 기록 유산에 접근할 수 있게 하고 이를 이해할 수 있게 합니다. 또는 공용어를 사용하지 않는 개인들이 서로 소통할 수 있게 합니다. 그러나 그와 동시에 인공 지능 체계는, 부분 또는 전부 거짓인 이야기를 마치 참인 것처럼 믿고 공유하게 만들면서 현실을 왜곡시키는 ‘인지적 오염’의 수단이 될 수 있습니다. 이에 대하여, 오래 전부터 있어 온 가짜 뉴스3)의 형태를 띤 허위 정보 문제를 생각해 보는 것으로도 충분할 것입니다. 오늘날에는 ‘딥페이크’(deepfakes)를 활용한 허위 정보의 문제, 곧 완벽하게 진짜 같아 보이지만 거짓인 영상의 제작과 유포(저 또한 그 대상이 된 적이 있습니다.) 또는 어떤 이의 목소리를 이용하여 그 사람이 결코 발언한 적이 없는 것을 말하는 음성 메시지의 제작과 유포라는 문제가 있습니다. 이와 같은 프로그램의 기저에 있는 시뮬레이션 기술은 어떤 특수 분야에서는 유용할 수 있지만, 우리가 타인과 그리고 현실과 맺는 관계를 왜곡하는 곳에서는 타락하게 됩니다. 

인공 지능의 첫 물결인 소셜 미디어의 물결이 일기 시작한 때부터 우리는 그 양면성을 경험해 왔습니다. 인공 지능의 가능성뿐만 아니라 그 위험성과 이에 따른 병폐도 경험해 온 것입니다. 생성형 인공 지능의 두 번째 단계가 어떤 질적 도약을 보여 준다는 데에는 논란의 여지가 없지만, 그러하기에 잘못된 사람의 손에 들어가면 혼란스러운 상황으로 이어질 수 있는 수단들을 이해하고 평가하며 규제하는 것이 중요합니다. 인간의 지능과 기술로 생겨난 다른 모든 산물과 마찬가지로 알고리즘은 중립적이지 않습니다. 이러한 까닭에, 윤리적 규제의 모델들을 제시함으로써 예방 조치를 할 필요가 있습니다. 이는 인공 지능 체계의 사용에 따른 해롭고 차별적이며 사회적으로 부조리한 영향을 방지하기 위한 것입니다. 또한 다원성 감소나 여론 양극화, 획일적 사고 형성을 목적으로 하는 인공 지능 체계의 오용에 맞서기 위한 것입니다. 저는 “다양한 유형의 인공 지능의 개발과 사용을 규제하는 구속력 있는 국제 조약을 채택하고자 …… 국제 공동체가 함께 힘써 주기를”4) 다시 한번 호소합니다. 그러나 인간의 모든 상황에서 그러하듯이 규제 그 자체로는 충분하지 않습니다.

인류 안에서 성장하기

우리는 모두 인류 안에서 그리고 인류로서 함께 성장하도록 부름받고 있습니다. 우리에게 주어진 도전 과제는 다민족, 다원주의, 다종교, 다문화의 복합적인 사회로 나아가기 위한 질적 도약을 이루는 것입니다. 우리는 커뮤니케이션과 지식의 이 새로운 수단들의 이론적 발전과 실제 사용에 대하여 신중하게 성찰하도록 부름받고 있습니다. 이 새로운 수단들이 지니는 선을 위한 큰 가능성에는, 모든 것을 추상적인 셈법으로 변환시켜 개개인을 데이터로, 사고를 기계적인 과정으로, 경험을 별개의 사례들로, 선을 이윤으로 환산시켜 버릴 위험이 따릅니다. 무엇보다 각 개인의 고유성과 역사를 부정해 버릴 위험도 있습니다. 현실의 구체성은 넘쳐나는 통계 데이터 안에 흡수되어 버립니다.

디지털 혁명은 우리에게 더 큰 자유를 가져다줄 수 있습니다. 그러나 디지털 혁명이 오늘날 ‘반향실’(echo chambers)이라고 일컫는 틀에 우리를 가두어 놓을 때에는 그렇지 않습니다. 이러한 경우, 정보의 다원성이 증대되기 보다 우리 스스로 혼란의 수렁에 빠져 시장이나 권력의 이익을 위한 먹잇감이 될 위험이 있습니다. 인공 지능의 활용이 집단 사고로, 검증되지 않은 데이터 수집으로, 집단 편집을 통한 책임 회피로 이어지는 것은 용납할 수 없습니다. 기계 운영에 아무리 유용하더라도 ‘빅 데이터’(big data) 안에서 현실을 묘사하는 것은 대인 커뮤니케이션을 방해하고 우리 인류 자체를 위협하여 결국 사물의 진리를 근본적으로 잃어버리게 만듭니다. 정보는 살아 있는 관계들과 분리될 수 없습니다. 현실 세계에 자리하고 있는 몸을 포함하는 이러한 관계들은 데이터뿐만 아니라 인간 경험의 상관관계도 아우르며, 얼굴과 그 표정을 알아차리는 감수성과 연민과 나눔을 필요로 합니다.

여기에서 저는 전쟁에 대한 보도와, 허위 정보의 대량 유포를 통하여 벌어지는 ‘병행전’(parallel war)을 떠올려 봅니다. 또한 자신이 직접 목격한 것을 우리도 볼 수 있게 취재하다가 다치거나 목숨을 잃은 모든 기자를 생각합니다. 아이들을 비롯하여 사람들이 겪는 고통을 직접 접할 때에야 우리는 비로소 전쟁의 부조리함을 인식하게 됩니다.

인공 지능의 활용은 커뮤니케이션 분야에 긍정적인 기여를 할 수 있습니다. 인공 지능의 활용이 현장에서 언론이 하는 역할을 없애지 않고 이를 뒷받침한다면, 커뮤니케이션의 전문성을 중요하게 여기면서 모든 전달자가 각자의 책임을 더 잘 인식하게 한다면, 그리고 모든 사람이 본분에 맞게 분별력을 가지고 커뮤니케이션 활동에 참여하게 한다면 그럴 수 있습니다. 

현재와 미래를 위한 질문들

이와 관련하여 자연스럽게 많은 질문이 제기됩니다. 정보와 커뮤니케이션 분야에 몸담고 있는 종사자들의 전문성과 존엄성 그리고 전 세계 사용자들의 존엄성을 보호하려면 어떻게 해야 합니까? 플랫폼의 상호 운용성을 보장하려면 어떻게 해야 합니까? 디지털 플랫폼을 개발하는 기업이 전통 커뮤니케이션 매체의 편집자들과 마찬가지로 콘텐츠와 광고에 대한 책임을 받아들일 수 있게 하려면 어떻게 해야 합니까? 색인의 생성과 해제를 위한, 그리고 인물이나 의견, 역사, 문화를 제시하거나 지워버릴 수 있는 검색 엔진을 위한 알고리즘 작동 기준을 어떻게 해야 더욱 투명하게 만들 수 있습니까? 정보 처리의 투명성을 어떻게 보장합니까? 글의 친저성(親著性)과, 익명성의 방패 뒤에 숨은 출처의 추적 가능성을 어떻게 확인합니까? 이미지나 동영상이 사건을 묘사하고 있는 것인지 아니면 가상으로 만들어진 것인지 어떻게 분명히 알 수 있습니까? 출처들이 단 하나로 축소되어, 알고리즘을 기반으로 개발되는 단일 접근 방식을 조장하지 않도록 하려면 어떻게 해야 합니까? 다원성을 보존하고 복합적인 현실을 드러내는 데에 적합한 환경을 조성하려면 어떻게 해야 합니까? 이처럼 매우 강력하지만 엄청난 비용이 들고 에너지 소모적인 기술을 지속 가능하게 만들려면 어떻게 하면 됩니까? 이 기술에 개발도상국도 접근할 수 있게 하려면 어떻게 해야 합니까?

이를 비롯한 여러 질문에 우리가 어떤 답을 제시하느냐에 따라 앞날이 결정될 것입니다. 인공 지능이 정보 접근성에 기반한 새로운 사회 계급들을 만들어 낸다면 새로운 형태의 착취와 불평등을 야기할 수 있습니다. 아니면 이와 정반대로, 매우 체계적이고 다원적인 정보 네트워크 안에서 개인들과 민족들의 많은 요구를 인지할 수 있게 되면서 우리가 현재 겪고 있는 시대 변화에 대한 인식을 심화시키고 올바른 정보를 증진한다면, 인공 지능은 더 큰 평등으로 우리를 이끌 수 있습니다. 한편으로 우리가 새로운 종살이 형태의 망령을 엿볼 수 있다면, 다른 한편으로 우리는 더 큰 자유의 수단을 그려 볼 수 있는 것입니다. 선택받은 소수가 다른 이들의 생각을 좌우할 가능성, 아니면 모든 사람이 생각을 발전시켜 나가는 데에 참여할 가능성, 이 둘 중 하나입니다.

이러한 질문들에 대한 답은 미리 정해진 것이 아니라 우리에게 달려 있습니다. 우리가 알고리즘의 먹잇감이 될 것인지, 아니면 지혜를 기르는 데에 반드시 필요한 자유로 우리 마음에 자양분을 줄 것인지는 우리에게 달린 것입니다. 시간을 현명하게 사용하고 우리의 취약한 부분들을 포용할 때 지혜가 무르익습니다. 지혜는 세대 간에, 곧 과거를 기억하는 사람들과 미래를 내다보는 사람들 사이에 이루는 연대 안에서 자랍니다. 함께할 때에야 비로소, 우리는 식별하고 깨어 살피는 역량, 그리고 사물을 그 본연의 충만함에 비추어 바라보는 역량을 키울 수 있습니다. 우리 인류가 방향을 잃지 않도록 지혜를 구합시다. 지혜는 모든 것에 앞서 존재하였고(집회 1,4 참조), 깨끗한 마음들 안으로 들어가 그들을 하느님의 벗과 예언자로 만듭니다(지혜 7,27 참조). 지혜는 우리가 인공 지능 체계를 온전한 인간 커뮤니케이션에 봉사하도록 이끄는 데에 도움이 될 것입니다. 

로마 성 요한 라테라노 대성전에서
2024년 1월 24일

프란치스코

1) Romano Guardini, Lettere dal lago di Como, Brescia 2022 5, 95-97.

2) 이 담화는 “사람들을 있는 그 자리에서 그대로 만나 소통하기”(2021년), “마음의 귀로 경청하기”(2022년), “마음으로 말하기”(2023년)를 주제로 한 이전의 홍보 주일 교황 담화들과 연속선상에 있다.

3) 프란치스코, 2018년 홍보 주일 담화 “‘진리가 너희를 자유롭게 할 것이다’(요한 8,32) 가짜 뉴스 그리고 평화를 위한 언론”, 2018.1.24., 『가톨릭 교회의 가르침』 58호(2018), 한국천주교중앙협의회, 89면 참조. 

4) 프란치스코, 제57차 세계 평화의 날(2024.1.1.) 담화, 2023.12.8., 8항.

<원문 Message of His Holiness Pope Francis for the 58th World Day of Social Communications, Artificial Intelligence and the Wisdom of the Heart: Towards a Fully Human Communication, 2024.1.24., 이탈리아어도 참조>

영어:
https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/messages/communications/documents/20240124-messaggio-comunicazioni-sociali.html

MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS
FOR THE 58th WORLD DAY OF SOCIAL COMMUNICATIONS

Artificial Intelligence and the Wisdom of the Heart:
Towards a Fully Human Communication

Dear brothers and sisters!

The development of systems of artificial intelligence, to which I devoted my recent Message for the World Day of Peace, is radically affecting the world of information and communication, and through it, certain foundations of life in society. These changes affect everyone, not merely professionals in those fields. The rapid spread of astonishing innovations, whose workings and potential are beyond the ability of most of us to understand and appreciate, has proven both exciting and disorienting. This leads inevitably to deeper questions about the nature of human beings, our distinctiveness and the future of the species homo sapiens in the age of artificial intelligence. How can we remain fully human and guide this cultural transformation to serve a good purpose?

Starting with the heart

Before all else, we need to set aside catastrophic predictions and their numbing effects. A century ago, Romano Guardini reflected on technology and humanity. Guardini urged us not to reject “the new” in an attempt to “preserve a beautiful world condemned to disappear”. At the same time, he prophetically warned that “we are constantly in the process of becoming. We must enter into this process, each in his or her own way, with openness but also with sensitivity to everything that is destructive and inhumane therein”. And he concluded: “These are technical, scientific and political problems, but they cannot be resolved except by starting from our humanity. A new kind of human being must take shape, endowed with a deeper spirituality and new freedom and interiority”. [1]

At this time in history, which risks becoming rich in technology and poor in humanity, our reflections must begin with the human heart. [2] Only by adopting a spiritual way of viewing reality, only by recovering a wisdom of the heart, can we confront and interpret the newness of our time and rediscover the path to a fully human communication. In the Bible, the heart is seen as the place of freedom and decision-making. It symbolizes integrity and unity, but it also engages our emotions, desires, dreams; it is, above all, the inward place of our encounter with God. Wisdom of the heart, then, is the virtue that enables us to integrate the whole and its parts, our decisions and their consequences, our nobility and our vulnerability, our past and our future, our individuality and our membership within a larger community.

This wisdom of the heart lets itself be found by those who seek it and be seen by those who love it; it anticipates those who desire it and it goes in search of those who are worthy of it (cf. Wis 6:12-16). It accompanies those willing to take advice (cf. Prov 13:10), those endowed with a docile and listening heart (cf. 1 Kg 3:9). A gift of the Holy Spirit, it enables us to look at things with God’s eyes, to see connections, situations, events and to uncover their real meaning. Without this kind of wisdom, life becomes bland, since it is precisely wisdom – whose Latin root sapere is related to the noun sapor – that gives “savour” to life.

Opportunity and danger

Such wisdom cannot be sought from machines. Although the term “artificial intelligence” has now supplanted the more correct term, “machine learning”, used in scientific literature, the very use of the word “intelligence” can prove misleading. No doubt, machines possess a limitlessly greater capacity than human beings for storing and correlating data, but human beings alone are capable of making sense of that data. It is not simply a matter of making machines appear more human, but of awakening humanity from the slumber induced by the illusion of omnipotence, based on the belief that we are completely autonomous and self-referential subjects, detached from all social bonds and forgetful of our status as creatures.

Human beings have always realized that they are not self-sufficient and have sought to overcome their vulnerability by employing every means possible. From the earliest prehistoric artifacts, used as extensions of the arms, and then the media, used as an extension of the spoken word, we have now become capable of creating highly sophisticated machines that act as a support for thinking. Each of these instruments, however, can be abused by the primordial temptation to become like God without God (cf. Gen 3), that is, to want to grasp by our own effort what should instead be freely received as a gift from God, to be enjoyed in the company of others.

Depending on the inclination of the heart, everything within our reach becomes either an opportunity or a threat. Our very bodies, created for communication and communion, can become a means of aggression. So too, every technical extension of our humanity can be a means of loving service or of hostile domination.

Artificial intelligence systems can help to overcome ignorance and facilitate the exchange of information between different peoples and generations. For example, they can render accessible and understandable an enormous patrimony of written knowledge from past ages or enable communication between individuals who do not share a common language. Yet, at the same time, they can be a source of “cognitive pollution”, a distortion of reality by partially or completely false narratives, believed and broadcast as if they were true. We need but think of the long-standing problem of disinformation in the form of fake news, [3] 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), or of audio messages that use a person’s voice to say things which that person never said. 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.

Starting with the first wave of artificial intelligence, that of social media, we have experienced its ambivalence: its possibilities but also its risks and associated pathologies. The second level of generative artificial intelligence unquestionably represents a qualitative leap. It is important therefore to understand, appreciate and regulate instruments that, in the wrong hands could lead to disturbing scenarios. Like every other product of human intelligence and skill, algorithms are not neutral. For this reason, there is a need to act preventively, by proposing models of ethical regulation, to forestall harmful, discriminatory and socially unjust effects of the use of systems of artificial intelligence and to combat their misuse for the purpose of reducing pluralism, polarizing public opinion or creating forms of groupthink. I once more appeal to the international community “to work together in order to adopt a binding international treaty that regulates the development and use of artificial intelligence in its many forms”. [4] At the same time, as in every human context, regulation is, of itself, not sufficient.

Growth in humanity

All of us are called to grow together, in humanity and as humanity. We are challenged to make a qualitative leap in order to become a complex, multiethnic, pluralistic, multireligious and multicultural society. We are called to reflect carefully on the theoretical development and the practical use of these new instruments of communication and knowledge. Their great possibilities for good are accompanied by the risk of turning everything into abstract calculations that reduce individuals to data, thinking to a mechanical process, experience to isolated cases, goodness to profit, and, above all, a denial of the uniqueness of each individual and his or her story. The concreteness of reality dissolves in a flurry of statistical data.

The digital revolution can bring us greater freedom, but not if it imprisons us in models that nowadays are called “echo chambers”. In such cases, rather than increasing a pluralism of information, we risk finding ourselves adrift in a mire of confusion, prey to the interests of the market or of the powers that be. It is unacceptable that the use of artificial intelligence should lead to groupthink, to a gathering of unverified data, to a collective editorial dereliction of duty. The representation of reality in “big data”, however useful for the operation of machines, ultimately entails a substantial loss of the truth of things, hindering interpersonal communication and threatening our very humanity. Information cannot be separated from living relationships. These involve the body and immersion in the real world; they involve correlating not only data but also human experiences; they require sensitivity to faces and facial expressions, compassion and sharing.

Here I think of the reporting of wars and the “parallel war” being waged through campaigns of disinformation. I think too of all those reporters who have been injured or killed in the line of duty in order to enable us to see what they themselves had seen. For only by such direct contact with the suffering of children, women and men, can we come to appreciate the absurdity of wars.

The use of artificial intelligence can make a positive contribution to the communications sector, provided it does not eliminate the role of journalism on the ground but serves to support it. Provided too that it values the professionalism of communication, making every communicator more aware of his or her responsibilities, and enables all people to be, as they should, discerning participants in the work of communication.

Questions for today and for the future

In this regard, a number of questions naturally arise. How do we safeguard professionalism and the dignity of workers in the fields of information and communication, together with that of users throughout the world? How do we ensure the interoperability of platforms? How do we enable businesses that develop digital platforms to accept their responsibilities with regard to content and advertising in the same way as editors of traditional communications media? How do we make more transparent the criteria guiding the operation of algorithms for indexing and de-indexing, and for search engines that are capable of celebrating or canceling persons and opinions, histories and cultures? How do we guarantee the transparency of information processing? How do we identify the paternity of writings and the traceability of sources concealed behind the shield of anonymity? How do we make it clear whether an image or video is portraying an event or simulating it? How do we prevent sources from being reduced to one alone, thus fostering a single approach, developed on the basis of an algorithm? How instead do we promote an environment suitable for preserving pluralism and portraying the complexity of reality? How can we make sustainable a technology so powerful, costly and energy-consuming? And how can we make it accessible also to developing countries?

The answers we give to these and other questions will determine if artificial intelligence will end up creating new castes based on access to information and thus giving rise to new forms of exploitation and inequality. Or, if it will lead to greater equality by promoting correct information and a greater awareness of the epochal change that we are experiencing by making it possible to acknowledge the many needs of individuals and of peoples within a well-structured and pluralistic network of information. If, on the one hand, we can glimpse the spectre of a new form of slavery, on the other, we can also envision a means of greater freedom; either the possibility that a select few can condition the thought of others, or that all people can participate in the development of thought.

The answer we give to these questions is not pre-determined; it depends on us. It is up to us to decide whether we will become fodder for algorithms or will nourish our hearts with that freedom without which we cannot grow in wisdom. Such wisdom matures by using time wisely and embracing our vulnerabilities. It grows in the covenant between generations, between those who remember the past and who look ahead to the future. Only together can we increase our capacity for discernment and vigilance and for seeing things in the light of their fulfilment. Lest our humanity lose its bearings, let us seek the wisdom that was present before all things (cf. Sir 1:4): it will help us also to put systems of artificial intelligence at the service of a fully human communication.

Rome, Saint John Lateran, 24 January 2024

FRANCIS 

---

[1] Letters from Lake Como.

[2] The 2024 Message for the World Day of Social Communications takes up the preceding Messages devoted to encountering persons where and how they are (2021), to hearing with the ear of the heart (2022) and speaking to the heart (2023).

[3] Cf. “The Truth Will Make You Free” (Jn 8:32). Fake News and Journalism for Peace, Message for the 2018 World Day of Social Communications.

[4] Message for the 57th World Day of Peace, 1 January 2024, 8.

이탈리아어:
https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/it/messages/communications/documents/20240124-messaggio-comunicazioni-sociali.html

[내용출처 - https://cbck.or.kr/Notice/20241096?gb=K1200 ]

LVIII World Communications Day, 2024 - Artificial Intelligence and the Wisdom of the Heart: Towards a Fully Human Communication