(2019.9.27 バチカン放送)。
教皇フランシスコは27日、「デジタル時代の共通善」をテーマとするセミナーの参加者にあいさつをなさった。
このセミナーは、教皇庁の人間開発の部署と文化評議会が共催して26日から29日までバチカンで開かれているもので、人工知能をはじめとするデジタル技術分野の目覚ましい発展が、社会・倫理・政治に与える影響を考察している。
教皇は、セミナー参加者へのあいさつで、「これまでにない技術発展がもたらす新しい可能性を、倫理的な方法のもとに利用する必要」を指摘され、「テクノロジーの活用によるより良い世界は、その発展に共通善のビジョンや、自由・責任・兄弟愛をめぐる倫理を伴ってこそ、可能になります」と強調。「共通善を、あらゆる個人のための善と分離することはできない」として、テクノロジーを日常生活に導入する際、その積極的な側面が「人間の尊厳と自由を脅かす危険に変貌する可能性」に常に警戒するように促された。
そして、「ロボット技術が疲労と危険をもたらすある種の作業から人を解放する」が、その効率と利益向上だけに気を取られれば、「多くの人の仕事と尊厳が脅かされる」ことになり、AI(人工知能)が信頼に足る情報へのアクセスに大きく役立つ反面、「偏向した世論や偽のデータを拡散して、何万という人々の考えを操作し、最後には市民の平和的共存を保証する制度自体をも危険に陥れる」可能性があることを警告された。
そのうえで教皇は「テクノロジーの進歩が人々の間に不平等を広げるなら、共通善の敵となるなら、それを真の発展と呼ぶことはできません」と言明、「あるシステムがいかに発達して効率的であろうと、一人ひとりの人間のかけがえのない尊厳と貢献を価値づけることができない限り、皆さんの仕事は続きます」とセミナー参加者たちの一層の努力を求めた。
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(以下、Vatican News 英語版)
Pope addresses ethical challenges of technological progress
When Cardinal Ravasi addressed the Pope at the beginning of the Audience, he said it was the complexity of ongoing scientific research in the field of digital culture that had inspired the two Vatican Dicasteries to “join forces”.
From AI to Transhumanism
The Cardinal listed some of the issues discussed during their meeting: from digital systems to autonomous weaponry, from artificial intelligence to blockchain, from robotization to transhumanism. The “guiding star” of their reflections, he said, remained the “value of the common good and the protection of the dignity of the human person”.
Pope Francis responded by acknowledging “the remarkable developments in the field of technology, in particular those dealing with artificial intelligence”, and how these “raise increasingly significant implications in all areas of human activity”.
Technology and ethics
Referencing his Encyclical Letter, Laudato Si’, the Pope said “the indisputable benefit that humanity will be able to draw from technological progress depends on the degree to which the new possibilities at our disposal are employed in an ethical manner”
He spoke of a “technocratic paradigm” that promises the imposition of uncontrolled and unlimited progress that endangers the whole of humanity. Instead, the Pope encouraged concretely fostering “the culture of encounter and interdisciplinary dialogue”.
The common good
Pope Francis praised the “inclusive and fruitful dialogue” that characterized the meeting, and that “helps everyone to learn from one another and does not allow anyone to close themselves off in prearranged methodologies”.
Commenting on the objectives of the meeting itself, the Pope recognized the challenge of precisely stating “both theoretical and practical moral principles” so that “the ethical challenges examined may be addressed precisely in the context of the common good”.
Robotics
Pope Francis spoke specifically about the positive and negative roles of robots in the workplace: on the one hand, undertaking “arduous and repetitive types of work”, on the other, depriving “thousands of people of work, putting their dignity at risk”.
Artificial intelligence
The Pope also addressed the issue of artificial intelligence. While allowing “greater access to reliable information”, AI can also circulate “tendentious opinions and false data” that can “manipulate the opinions of millions of people, to the point of endangering the very institutions that guarantee peaceful civil coexistence”, he said.
The good of the individual
Pope Francis added a warning: “If so-called technological progress were to become an enemy of the common good”, he said, “this would lead to an unfortunate regression, to a form of barbarism dictated by the law of the strongest”. “The common good cannot be separated from the specific good of each individual”.
A better world
The Pope concluded by affirming that “a better world is possible thanks to technological progress, if this is accompanied by an ethic inspired by a vision of the common good, an ethic of freedom, responsibility and fraternity, capable of fostering the full development of people in relation to others and to the whole of creation”.