US lawmakers discuss AI threats with Pope Leo XIV at Vatican

US lawmakers met with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican to discuss the risks posed by the development of artificial intelligence. The sides held closed-door talks focusing in particular on ethical threats, the preservation of human dignity, and equality in the face of automation, Politico reports.

The trip by the nine-member bipartisan delegation was coordinated by the US House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party. The American group was led by Republican Dan Newhouse and Democrat Ro Khanna. Representatives Diana DeGette, Buddy Carter, John Rutherford, Randy Feenstra, Shontel Brown, Jill Tokuda, and Raja Krishnamoorthi also took part in the discussions.

The participants examined in detail the geopolitical competition between the United States and China in the technology sector, as well as the ethical consequences of the unchecked deployment of new systems.

“Human dignity means that human beings need to be responsible for any key decisions involving health, involving finances, involving individual freedom, involving public services,” Khanna said after the talks.

He stressed that automation should not lead to mass unemployment or deprive the poorest segments of the population of access to social assistance. Politicians are particularly concerned about the concentration of enormous power in the hands of a small number of billionaires who make decisions about algorithms and databases. The Vatican, however, did not respond to a request for comment on the meeting.

Following the visit, Khanna sent letters to the heads of major technology companies, including OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, Google, Microsoft, Apple, Nvidia, and Amazon. The lawmaker asked the companies how they intend to align their technology with the tenets of human dignity and equality.

He also drafted legislation that would impose taxes on the use of autonomous digital agents in an effort to encourage employers to hire human workers.

Earlier, the UOJ reported that Pope Leo had called for artificial intelligence to be “disarmed.”

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