1 January 2024 marked the commemoration of World Peace Day with the theme, ‘Artificial Intelligence and Peace’. In his message for the 57th World Day of Peace, Pope Francis reflected on the impact of Artificial Intelligence on world peace, and urged the international community to adopt a binding international treaty that regulates its development and use. The Holy Father said, “We have a duty to broaden our gaze and to direct techno-scientific research towards the pursuit of peace and the common good, in the service of the integral development of individuals and communities.”
In his message for World Peace Day, Primate of All Ireland, Archbishop Eamon Martin said, “the international community must urgently ask if war crimes have been committed in places like Gaza … with the constant and seemingly merciless bombardment of civilian populations, including defenceless women and children”. Archbishop Eamon echoed The Holy Father’s message on peace and said, “Pope Francis draws our attention to the ‘serious ethical questions related to the armaments sector,’ in today’s world, and especially the risks posed by the ‘weaponisation of artificial intelligence’. The unique human capacity for moral judgment and ethical decision-making … cannot be reduced to programming a machine which, as ‘intelligent’ as it may be, remains a machine, therefore in this regard I believe we must not lose sight of the shocking impact that so-called modern warfare is already having in places like Gaza – nor of the destruction caused by endless use of rockets and bombs in built up areas often filled with displaced people who are desperate for safe shelter.”
During his homily at Mass in Dublin for the Diplomatic Corps on World Day of Peace, Archbishop of Dublin, Archbishop Dermot Farrell said, “In other parts of the world, the many conflicts amount to what has been rightly described as a ‘piecemeal world war’, which continues to spread more widely (see Pope Francis, 18 December 2022): the cynical Russian war against Ukraine, the dangerous local and regional conflicts in the Middle East, and Sub-Saharan Africa. Over and over again, the binding moral and international legal standards of the Geneva Conventions are clearly being violated by the indiscriminate use of force against civilians.”
For the full text of Pope Francis see vatican.va, and for Archbishops Eamon Martin and Dermot Farrell click here
ENDS
