"Technology that puts itself at the service of the care for life, refusing to discard it when it does not meet standards of efficiency and wellbeing decided by a machine, is a real blessing. When technology takes power, with our passive complicity, we ourselves become responsible for the loss of that blessing. We must be lords of technology, at the service of life; and not masters of life, subject to technology. This is the covenant that we must seal. The complexity of this discernment is certainly real. It requires a period of careful and open listening and critical understanding of the phenomena that surround us. The tools that we have are,
all in all, not very sophisticated or dependable. Scientific research is an irreplaceable part of this covenant. The hidden pitfall in new technological resources is the great extent of their invisibility. They cannot be perceived physically or mentally by individuals or by the community. They are not large and impressive machines. They are virtual relationships and the results of calculations. Even before they establish connections between humans, these devices connect with each other.
Artificial intelligences, algorithms that can learn, so-called machine learning, and other cognitive computer systems are the vehicles of this revolution. These systems are spreading more and more to every area of our life as in the past steam and electricity changed the way we carried out all our activities. For this reason, closely connected with this meeting, artificial intelligence will be the theme of next year’s workshop. We want to approach this new frontier forcefully and passionately, with as much wide cooperation as possible. To honor, with science and conscience, the task that has been authoritatively entrusted to us".
(From the Opening Address, by Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia)
