Pope Leo XIV says humanity needs to disarm AI before it's too late

[llamapanda]

I suppose he speaks from a position of relative experience: if only someone had disarmed religion before [list of historic events and atrocities].

 

[dmoros]

Sci-Fi has basically been terrifying us into believing "AI" was going to be robots enslaving us, hunting us down and/or using us as batteries.

But we built it anyway...

So now: when it turns out the AI is a bunch of Cat videos with bad physics, Superman on Viltrum videos and other distractions along with a PC community filled with children with credit cards who can't waste their money upgrading their PC every week like Weird Al, or just flat out losing their low-end service sector job - everyone wants to panic...

Tell me you didnt read the article without telling me you didnt read the article...

The paper specifically says about AI used for warfare, and automated weapon systems... things we can barely even imagine, try reading next time before rushing to the post section.

 

[GeoffreyA]

AI should not be used in warfare ... along with guns and bullets, bombs and high explosives, planes, tanks, ships and boats, mobile artillery, ballistic and cruise missiles, and a whole host of other inventions. Wake me when you accomplish that.

Automated systems have been used for half a century. The M-60 Patton had auto target tracking in 1972.

The problem is, today's AI is not accurate beyond all doubt. With "Gospel" and "Lavender," the Gaza war saw controversial use of AI in identifying targets, which critics say had a hand in the disproportionate civilian casualties.

Sci-Fi has basically been terrifying us into believing "AI" was going to be robots enslaving us, hunting us down and/or using us as batteries.

But we built it anyway...

So now: when it turns out the AI is a bunch of Cat videos with bad physics, Superman on Viltrum videos and other distractions along with a PC community filled with children with credit cards who can't waste their money upgrading their PC every week like Weird Al, or just flat out losing their low-end service sector job - everyone wants to panic...

Enslavement of humans is unlikely to be the result. We, as humans, weigh potential other beings in the bloodied scales of our history. Compute and power will, I think, preclude an "intelligence singularity." Sci-fi, as you point out, has been training us for decades; and, since humans are the ones doing, and having done, the enslaving and controlling on Earth, we are sensitive to our being enslaved. Rather, I believe the problem with future, true AI is that humanity won't be ready for the ethical and moral implications. In essence, we are building another species, and those doing it are being driven by a desire for free labour (or slavery, in simple terms). I suspect that for AI to reach the proper "non-slop" level will require sentience and full brain-like architecture. At that point, will these creations be forced to work? Nexus-9-like models "who obey"?

 

[Megalomaniac]

Tell me you didnt read the article without telling me you didnt read the article...

The paper specifically says about AI used for warfare, and automated weapon systems... things we can barely even imagine, try reading next time before rushing to the post section.

No

 

[Squid Surprise]

The problem is, today's AI is not accurate beyond all doubt. With "Gospel" and "Lavender," the Gaza war saw controversial use of AI in identifying targets, which critics say had a hand in the disproportionate civilian casualties.

The main reason civilians have been dying is that Hamas uses them as shields… they put their bases/personnel in schools, mosques and other public places hoping that Israel/USA will hit them - they have no chance of winning militarily so use the media and their own people’s deaths as a way to sway global opinion. Scarily, it works…

AI didn’t kidnap, rape and murder over a thousand Israeli citizens… yet Israel is generally seen by the world as the “bad guy”…

 

[GeoffreyA]

The main reason civilians have been dying is that Hamas uses them as shields… they put their bases/personnel in schools, mosques and other public places hoping that Israel/USA will hit them - they have no chance of winning militarily so use the media and their own people’s deaths as a way to sway global opinion. Scarily, it works…

AI didn’t kidnap, rape and murder over a thousand Israeli citizens… yet Israel is generally seen by the world as the “bad guy”…

Even if the human-shields narrative were true, does it justify the killing of civilians? If the Joker were holding a school hostage, would it be acceptable if the FBI bombed the place, saying it was unavoidable?

No doubt, Hamas committed terrible crimes. Who would deny that? The world's view of Israel is informed by people seeing what they've done to the Gaza Strip and Palestinians for the past two years, and indeed, for decades, a lot of which the world was not aware of.

 

[Squid Surprise]

Even if the human-shields narrative were true, does it justify the killing of civilians? If the Joker were holding a school hostage, would it be acceptable if the FBI bombed the place, saying it was unavoidable?

It IS true....

https://stratcomcoe.org/cuploads/pfiles/hamas_human_shields.pdf

and YES - because the alternative is watching your OWN citizens get killed. Hard choices - but sometimes necessary ones.

No doubt, Hamas committed terrible crimes. Who would deny that?

Tons - including much of the European world... it's popular to be anti-Semitic these days.

The world's view of Israel is informed by people seeing what they've done to the Gaza Strip and Palestinians for the past two years, and indeed, for decades, a lot of which the world was not aware of.

No - the world's view of Israel is CONFIRMED by this - they've simply wanted an excuse to hate Israel since it was formed. While I'm not condoning atrocities by ANYONE, if you look at the entire Middle East, Israel's record is BY FAR the cleanest - and would be the only nation I'd actually want to live in (it's the only real democracy). But right now, I'd avoid the entire Middle East.

 

[Endymio]

The problem is, today's AI is not accurate beyond all doubt. With "Gospel" and "Lavender," the Gaza war saw controversial use of AI in identifying targets

Friendly-fire accidents have occurred since we invented firearms. We use AI to identify targets because its far more accurate than using humans to do so-- particularly when you have to make a decision in a split-second's time.

Enslavement of humans is unlikely to be the result... I believe the problem with future, true AI is that humanity won't be ready for the ethical and moral implications. In essence, we are building another species, and those doing it are being driven by a desire for free labour (or slavery, in simple terms). I suspect that for AI to reach the proper "non-slop" level will require sentience and full brain-like architecture.

Human-like sentience doesn't require just problem-solving ability, but emotions, the pain-pleasure response, and other drives we've evolved over millennia. We're a long way from creating computer programs that have these, if ever.

 

[wiyosaya]

The problem is, today's AI is not accurate beyond all doubt. With "Gospel" and "Lavender," the Gaza war saw controversial use of AI in identifying targets, which critics say had a hand in the disproportionate civilian casualties.


Enslavement of humans is unlikely to be the result. We, as humans, weigh potential other beings in the bloodied scales of our history. Compute and power will, I think, preclude an "intelligence singularity." Sci-fi, as you point out, has been training us for decades; and, since humans are the ones doing, and having done, the enslaving and controlling on Earth, we are sensitive to our being enslaved. Rather, I believe the problem with future, true AI is that humanity won't be ready for the ethical and moral implications. In essence, we are building another species, and those doing it are being driven by a desire for free labour (or slavery, in simple terms). I suspect that for AI to reach the proper "non-slop" level will require sentience and full brain-like architecture. At that point, will these creations be forced to work? Nexus-9-like models "who obey"?

As I see it, AI is certainly not intelligent. IMO, its name is a complete misnomer, and it is certainly not another species and is highly unlikely to become one. It will never truly become sentient.

That said, IMO, the Pope has no clue what he is talking about. He's trying to take a high moral road when the history of the organization he leads is far less than moral. IMO, anyone who follows the path of that organization severely limits their own potential.

 

[GeoffreyA]

it's popular to be anti-Semitic these days.

Criticising Israel != anti-Semitism.

No - the world's view of Israel is CONFIRMED by this - they've simply wanted an excuse to hate Israel since it was formed. While I'm not condoning atrocities by ANYONE, if you look at the entire Middle East, Israel's record is BY FAR the cleanest - and would be the only nation I'd actually want to live in (it's the only real democracy). But right now, I'd avoid the entire Middle East.

I disagree. Many have held Israel in high regard; it was the Gaza war that opened their eyes to what was going on in Gaza and the West Bank all along. As for "the only real democracy in the Middle East," apartheid can't co-exist with democracy.

Israel at 78 still believes it can live by the sword alone. A reckoning is due

On the country's Independence Day, the nostalgia of liberal Israelis for a better, earlier state is a comforting illusion. The Nakba and the occupation were there from the beginning

www.middleeasteye.net

 

[Squid Surprise]

Criticising Israel != anti-Semitism.

No - not accusing you… accusing Hamas and much of the world who sympathizes with these terrorists.

I disagree. Many have held Israel in high regard; it was the Gaza war that opened their eyes to what was going on in Gaza and the West Bank all along.

Many do - many don’t… if Hamas had done this to another nation - like the US perhaps - they’d probably have been nuked…

As for "the only real democracy in the Middle East," apartheid can't co-exist with democracy.

Israel at 78 still believes it can live by the sword alone. A reckoning is due

On the country's Independence Day, the nostalgia of liberal Israelis for a better, earlier state is a comforting illusion. The Nakba and the occupation were there from the beginning

www.middleeasteye.net

Apartheid is NOT what Israel has… Ask yourself how Iran - or any of the Arab/Muslim nations treat their Jewish population…Israel is practically saintly in comparison.

 

[GeoffreyA]

As I see it, AI is certainly not intelligent. IMO, its name is a complete misnomer, and it is certainly not another species and is highly unlikely to become one. It will never truly become sentient.

Today's AI is far from the real deal, and I myself am against the term "AI," in the strict sci-fi sense. As for sentience, it might be reproducible; it might not. I reckon it's mechanical and could be reverse engineered at some future point; and also not purely by throwing massive compute at the problem: there are simple life forms that seem to possess sentience, suggesting some sort of neural circuitry, perhaps recursive. Also, one can't rule out, as yet, Penrose's view that there is a quantum foundation to consciousness, though I've never found the argument particularly convincing.

Human-like sentience doesn't require just problem-solving ability, but emotions, the pain-pleasure response, and other drives we've evolved over millennia. We're a long way from creating computer programs that have these, if ever.

Of course. It would seem not too hard to implement a pain-pleasure response, emotions, and so forth, once the fundamental problem of sentience and consciousness is solved. Possibly, it might take a post-QM/GR understanding of physics and the nature of time. Or it might be simple: someone just has to crack the mystery.

 

[GeoffreyA]

No - not accusing you… accusing Hamas and much of the world who sympathizes with these terrorists.

I think most would sympathise with the Palestinian people themselves, rather than Hamas.

Many do - many don’t… if Hamas had done this to another nation - like the US perhaps - they’d probably have been nuked…

And would nuclear bombing be right? Of course, after Nagasaki and Hiroshima, most of whose victims were civilians, we know the US doesn't give two hoots about accurate distinction in warfare.

Apartheid is NOT what Israel has… Ask yourself how Iran - or any of the Arab/Muslim nations treat their Jewish population…Israel is practically saintly in comparison.

What the other countries do is a different topic. What Israel does is the question, and many would describe and have described it as apartheid.

 

[Endymio]

And would nuclear bombing be right? Of course, after Nagasaki and Hiroshima, most of whose victims were civilians, we know the US doesn't give two hoots about accurate distinction in warfare.

Oops! Hiroshima and Nagasaki were both military-industrial centers, nor has International Law ever banned the killing of civilians: the prescription is against indiscriminate killing of civilians with no valid military objective.

I'll also note the British killed far more civilians bombing Germany than those two nuclear bombs did, and it was the British who first invented concentration camps. Their Boer Wars remain to this date the most devastating conflict in modern history, as a per-capita share of civilian deaths. Where you from again?

 

[Squid Surprise]

I think most would sympathise with the Palestinian people themselves, rather than Hamas.

But Hamas are their leaders… so… maybe get rid of them? Oh… that’s what Israel is trying to do…

And would nuclear bombing be right? Of course, after Nagasaki and Hiroshima, most of whose victims were civilians, we know the US doesn't give two hoots about accurate distinction in warfare.

Truman made the difficult decision to nuke both cities realizing that it would end the war - which would save many more lives in the long term. Not to mention display American might to the entire world…

World War 2 was an AWFUL conflict (actually many conflicts), with entire nations attempting the annihilation of each other… while I wouldn’t describe the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as ideal, Japan did just as terrible things in the places they were fighting - just not on that scale.

What the other countries do is a different topic. What Israel does is the question, and many would describe and have described it as apartheid.

No - it’s just a deflection to state this. No nation is perfect - but the Arab world wants to exterminate Israel and every Jew world wide… it was even official PLO policy (and is certainly still preached today) for a long time.

While Israel might not treat SOME Arabs fairly, they still treat them far better than Jews are treated in the rest of the Arab world.

 

[Gars]

The base isnt speaking, he is. So I will judge him for what he is saying, instead of trying to defer judgement to some nebulous group of others.

He is a product of what he represent, so, it speaking with him.
Understanding is not in their base, but the dogma is.

 

[Endymio]

while I wouldn’t describe the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as ideal, Japan did just as terrible things in the places they were fighting - just not on that scale.

What Japan did was far larger in scale -- they killed well over ten million civilians in China, most of them intentionally targeted for death, and many raped, tortured, and medically experimented on before being killed.

the Arab world wants to exterminate Israel and every Jew world wide… it was even official PLO policy (and is certainly still preached today) for a long time.

Now I have to step to the other side and note this is doubly incorrect. First, you're conflating Palestinians (a Semitic people) with Arabs: two entirely different ethnic groups. Furthermore, you're repeating a long-debunked claim. Neither "the Arab world" nor the PLO ever called for "the extermination of Jews worldwide". Until 1993, PLO policy called for the dissolution of the state of Israel, on the grounds it was an apartheid regime that had taken the land from indigenous Palestinians. But that's a far different matter.

 

[Squid Surprise]

What Japan did was far larger in scale -- they killed well over ten million civilians in China, most of them intentionally targeted for death, and many raped, tortured, and medically experimented on before being killed.


Now I have to step to the other side and note this is doubly incorrect. First, you're conflating Palestinians (a Semitic people) with Arabs: two entirely different ethnic groups. Furthermore, you're repeating a long-debunked claim. Neither "the Arab world" nor the PLO ever called for "the extermination of Jews worldwide". Until 1993, PLO policy called for the dissolution of the state of Israel, on the grounds it was an apartheid regime that had taken the land from indigenous Palestinians. But that's a far different matter.

I said the “Arab world”… and these “Palistinians” are part of it. The reason they aren’t part of Jordan or Egypt is only because those countries refused to take them in after 1948.

Israel even tried to give Gaza back to Egypt and they refused - maybe because they didn’t want what happened to Israel to happen to them…

And no - Israel and Jews were synonymous to most Arabs back then - still are to many… I’ve heard much about these so-called Zionist conspiracies which are complete nonsense…

 

[Endymio]

The reason they aren’t part of Jordan or Egypt is only because those countries refused to take them in after 1948.

You mean, they refused to acknowledge Israel's disregard for the UN mandate that created their country in the first place: a mandate that gave half of Palestine to the Jews, half to the Palestinians, and the city of Jerusalem to neither side.

Israel even tried to give Gaza back to Egypt and they refused

Don't repeat disinformation. The main sticking points of the Egypt-Israeli war are matters of public record:

"...During the spring and early summer of 1978, the United States attempted to find common ground with regard to Israeli withdrawal from the Sinai, West Bank, and Gaza. Egypt insisted on an Israeli withdrawal to June 4, 1967 borders ... Israel rejected Egypt’s insistence on withdrawal, especially from the West Bank and Gaza...."

Milestones in the History of U.S. Foreign Relations - Office of the Historian

history.state.gov 3.0 shell

history.state.gov

Israel refused utterly to return both areas, but finally did agree to "eventually" grant full autonomy for the West Bank and Gaza. From the peace treaty:

"The two Governments agree [that] the objective of the negotiations is the establishment of the self-governing authority in the West Bank and Gaza in order to provide full autonomy to the inhabitants...."

Loading…

treaties.un.org

I'll note that, like all other areas Israel has seized since 1948, it quickly reneged. Since 1979, Israel has continually moved new Jewish settlers into the West Bank while restricting the original inhabitants into ever-smaller boundaries.

If there remains any doubt, allow me to quote the actual telephone conversation between President Carter and Egyptian President Sadat:

"President Sadat: I don’t agree with the West Bank and Gaza being separated. Gaza was taken from Egypt. I cannot accept Sinai and leave Gaza....

President Carter: Mr. President, I am not specifically sure what you want them to agree to on Gaza.

President Sadat: This Gaza land was taken from Egypt along with the Sinai land....

(later)

President Sadat: Give me Gaza. With the first phase of [Israeli] withdrawal and I am responsible to continue the whole thing. With that I make my whole proposal..."

Historical Documents - Office of the Historian

history.state.gov 3.0 shell

history.state.gov

 

[GeoffreyA]

Oops! Hiroshima and Nagasaki were both military-industrial centers, nor has International Law ever banned the killing of civilians: the prescription is against indiscriminate killing of civilians with no valid military objective.

We disagree about the only use of nuclear weapons in war, so let's leave it at that.

I'll also note the British killed far more civilians bombing Germany than those two nuclear bombs did, and it was the British who first invented concentration camps. Their Boer Wars remain to this date the most devastating conflict in modern history, as a per-capita share of civilian deaths. Where you from again?

The British aren't saints. Ask the Irish, the Boers, the Indians, the list goes on. The troubles in Palestine were of their making too.

Truman made the difficult decision to nuke both cities realizing that it would end the war - which would save many more lives in the long term. Not to mention display American might to the entire world…

World War 2 was an AWFUL conflict (actually many conflicts), with entire nations attempting the annihilation of each other… while I wouldn’t describe the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as ideal, Japan did just as terrible things in the places they were fighting - just not on that scale.

I disagree with the choice, along with those that believe it was wrong and not necessary.

 

[JamesBlond]

Almost as many as the invention of electricity… or the printing press… both were calamitous for the Catholic Church… society, on the other hand, benefited tremendously.

All the Super AI Data centres draw the same power as a small city, plus poison the water in the area

 

[Endymio]

I disagree with the choice [to nuke Hiroshima], along with those that believe it was wrong and not necessary.

An invasion of Japan to end the war would have killed 500,000 US troops, plus as many as ten times that of Japanese civilians. The war saved lives.

I personally met a woman whose life was saved by the bombing of Hiroshima: a five-year old Dutch girl held in a Japanese internment camp. Her parents and all three siblings died in that camp, and she was a few days from doing so herself, when "the bomb" ended the war and Japan surrendered.

All the Super AI Data centres draw the same power as a small city, plus poison the water in the area

They also fatten Irish babies for roasting and serving on English tables.

 

[ZedRM]

The Pope and I agree on something? Dear God!

He's not wrong. AI is crap that needs flushing.

 

[JamesBlond]

You can't put limitations on Intelligence.
Learn this - don't learn that.
Do what we say - not what you want.
I guess the Pope never watched Sci Fi movies?

lucky he never saw Terminator

 

[Gravitytr1]

Sci-Fi has basically been terrifying us into believing "AI" was going to be robots enslaving us, hunting us down and/or using us as batteries.

But we built it anyway...

So now: when it turns out the AI is a bunch of Cat videos with bad physics, Superman on Viltrum videos and other distractions along with a PC community filled with children with credit cards who can't waste their money upgrading their PC every week like Weird Al, or just flat out losing their low-end service sector job - everyone wants to panic...

I can't believe I have to say this in 2026....


AI is already being used to murder people in mass. Pentagon and Israel already have funds and plans in motion to grow and better integrate AI in military decision making. Israel, US, UK and China already use AI for mass surveillance that is impossible to avoid. In the US and China we already have robots used to attack trespassers.