Friday, March 07, 2025

Daily updates highlight Pope's focus on fighting misinformation

It's now three weeks since Pope Francis entered the Gemelli Hospital in Rome.

Since then, morning and evening health updates from the Vatican have resulted in concern at times amongst the faithful, followed by calm.

Due to the stability of his health, today there will be no medical updates on the Pontiff's condition.

The twice-daily bulletins were published at the behest of the Pope, to avoid disinformation and misinformation.

Given that he has been subject to Artificial Intelligence scams in the past, Pope Francis is wise to the power of technology.

In 2023, an AI-generated picture featuring him in a puffer jacket went viral on social media.

The following year, he warned about the possible dangers of artificial intelligence and described it as "both exciting and disorienting".

Two weeks before Pope Francis entered hospital, the Vatican published a document titled 'Antiqua et Nova', on the relationship between artificial intelligence and human intelligence.

It was created by the dicasteries for the Doctrine of the Faith and for Culture and Education to highlight the potential and the challenges of AI in the areas of education, the economy, labour, health, human and international relations, and war.

Irish Bishop Paul Tighe is Secretary of the Dicastery for Culture and Education and instrumental in the creation of social media accounts for the Vatican and Pope Benedict XVI.

Bishop Tighe has acknowledged that he was among those who initially embraced the "extraordinary potential" of social media.

However, like most, he didn't foresee the side effects that emerged like polarisation, fake news, and other issues.

The Vatican is far more alert to the challenges and possibilities of AI, because it is one of the most significantly briefed institutions in the world.

Speaking to Inside the Vatican, Bishop Tighe explained how people from Silicon Valley met a Dominican Priest at a tech festival in San Francisco around ten years ago.

The conversation led him to suggest that they meet with people in the Vatican.

"They came to the Vatican to say we want to alert you to what's coming down the road, we see AI is going to take off in the next number of years, we can see the impact on society and the lives of individuals, and we think you people should be thinking about it."

Bishop Tighe said the group from Silicon Valley was interested in the views of those with perspectives of theology and philosophy.

The engagements over the years have resulted in friendships, enabling both parties to be "more direct with each other," according to the Bishop.

"Antiqua et Nova" warns of the serious risk of AI "generating manipulated content and false information".

Since the Pope entered hospital, conspiracy theories have dominated on social media platforms, stating that he was dead.

It is part of the reason that Pope Francis insisted on a twice daily update to the world about his medical 

Today, that routine has been broken with the next bulletin on the Pope's health due tomorrow.