Pope Francis met with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday at the G7 summit, where the pontiff warned leaders of the dangers of artificial intelligence and advised them to center humanity in its development.
Pope Francis became the first to address G7 leaders, offering an ethical view of an issue that is increasingly on the agendas of international summits, government policies and corporate boards. businesses.
He said politicians must take the lead in ensuring that artificial intelligence remains human-centered, so that decisions about when to use weapons or other less lethal material are always made by by humans and not by machines.
“We would condemn humanity to a hopeless future if we removed people’s ability to make decisions about themselves and their lives, condemning them to depend on the choices of machines,” he said. We must guarantee and safeguard a space of appropriate human control over the choices made by artificial intelligence programs: human dignity itself depends on it. »
The latter was invited to attend the second day of the G7 summit in Puglia, Italy, by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
Leaders of other countries, who arrived at the summit on Friday, also attended the speech. These included Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Argentine President Javier Milei and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
It was the first time the Canadian and Indian leaders were in the same room since Justin Trudeau accused Modi’s government of being involved in the murder of a Sikh activist, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, in British Columbia.
Mr. Trudeau made this shocking revelation in the House of Commons last September. Four Indian nationals have since been arrested and charged with Mr Nijjar’s murder.
Justin Trudeau met with the Pope before his speech Friday afternoon. The prime minister was expected to speak to him about promoting reconciliation and advocating for the return of indigenous artifacts held at the Vatican Museum.
Ukraine and migration on the agenda
The first day of the summit was dominated by the announcement that leaders would provide a $50 billion loan to Ukraine using interest earned on profits from the Russian central bank’s frozen assets as collateral.
Canada, for its part, has promised to contribute up to five billion dollars to the loan.
Justin Trudeau met with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Friday morning and was scheduled to meet Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida later in the day.
The leader of the Liberal Party of Canada also participated in a working session on migration in the morning. Later, a discussion will take place on the Indo-Pacific and economic security.
Migration is a priority for summit host Italy and its right-wing government, which is seeking to increase investment and funding for African countries to reduce migration pressure on Europe.