ROME – Pope Francis warned on Wednesday of the dangers of “big data”, saying “algorithms are not neutral” and can be used to spread fake news and create groupthink.
Artificial intelligence systems “could cause 'cognitive pollution,' the distortion of reality when partially or completely false stories are believed and broadcast as true,” the Pope said. He claims this in his 2024 book. message For World Day of Social Communication.
The digital revolution could trap people in “models that today are called 'echo chambers,'” the pope said, creating confusion rather than increasing “information pluralism.”
“It is unacceptable that the use of artificial intelligence leads to groupthink, the collection of unverified data, and collective editorial neglect,” he added.
In his message, the Pope warned of the dangers of date processing algorithms because “algorithms are not neutral” and “in the wrong hands could lead to disturbing scenarios.”
On April 30, 2023, in Budapest, Hungary, Pope Francis speaks to journalists who accompanied him on a plane returning to Rome from an apostolic trip to Hungary. (Vatican Pool via Vatican Media/Getty Images)
Attempts to control the narrative through artificial intelligence algorithms and systems lead to “reducing pluralism,” “polarizing public opinion,” and “creating forms of groupthink.”
Such groupthink can spread “catastrophic predictions and their paralyzing effects” and must be avoided at all costs, the Pope suggests.
Although the Pope did not give specific examples of this, the groupthink surrounding climate change alarmism that does not acknowledge alternative narratives, or the groupthink created during the coronavirus pandemic in an attempt to use “science” to serve political ideology will immediately come to mind.
“What we need to think about is the age-old problem of disinformation in the form of fake news, and today the issue of 'deepfakes', the creation and dissemination of images that are completely plausible but appear to be false. that it could be exploited,” Francis wrote.
