More than a dozen leaders from various religions with roots in Asia, including Buddhist, Sikh and Shinto groups, gathered at the Peace Park in Hiroshima, in Japan, which was decimated by a US nuclear bomb attack in 1945.
Together, they signed a charter advocating for the development and ethical use of AI, with a special emphasis on aiding the world’s most disadvantaged communities. This initiative, conceived by the Vatican, builds upon commitments made in 2020 by Abrahamic traditions and leading tech companies such as Microsoft, IBM, and Cisco, who endorsed the Rome Call for AI Ethics.
At the G7 summit last month in Italy, Pope Francis made an unprecedented address on AI ethical concerns surrounding artificial intelligence, becoming the first pope to participate in the summit of leaders. As AI transforms industries globally, the benefits to society and the planet are immense.
However, its rapid adoption also poses significant risks to communities and businesses. Addressing risks like AI hallucination, bias, discrimination, misinformation, and inaccuracies is crucial at this juncture of opportunity and potential consequence.
The Rome Call for AI Ethics comprises 3 impact areas (Ethics, Education and Rights) and 6 principles (Transparency, Inclusion, Accountability, Impartiality Reliability, Security & Privacy), all of which require artificial intelligence to be developed ‘with ethical principles to ensure it serves the good of humanity’, given concerns over the impact on warfare, elections and employment. These guiding frameworks support data scientists, developers and researchers in building AI systems in an ethical manner to benefit society.
Signatories agreed that AI systems ‘must not discriminate against anyone’ and ‘there must always be someone who takes responsibility for what a machine does’. The systems should be reliable, secure, straightforward to understand, and ‘must not follow or create biases’.
Concluding the two-day forum on the topic, the president of World Fellowship of Buddhists, Shinto sect leaders and the secretary general of the Baha’i International Community among others signed the call. Upon signing, Bhai Sahib Mohinder Singh told the ceremony that the Rome Call for AI Ethics ‘provides a much-needed global moral check’ and that AI ‘should never, ever exploit or destroy God’s creation, it should only seek its betterment and flourishing’.
The application of Rome Call principles to the reality of the tech world and the responsibility that AI producers share was witnessed by the attending big tech leaders. “With its profound place in human history, Hiroshima serves as a compelling backdrop to help ensure a technology created by humanity serves all of humanity and our common home,” said Brad Smith, Vice Chair and President of Microsoft as well as one of the Call’s first signatories.
Among the many distinguished speakers, who enriched the event by providing multiple perspectives on the risks and benefits of artificial intelligence, was the keynote address by Amandeep Singh Gill, UN Secretary-General’s Envoy on Technology, who stated: “The Rome Call for AI Ethics embodies the spirit needed for global AI governance.
“It comes at a critical moment ahead of the Summit of the Future and brings diverse religious perspectives together into a shared vision of ethical and human-centred AI. The Call is aligned with the United Nations Secretary General’s efforts to ensure AI governance is global, inclusive, and dedicated to promoting peace and human dignity for all.”
A moment’s silence was held before the ruins of a domed building that stands as a memorial to the 140,000 people killed in the atomic bombing at the end of World War II. Following the testimony of a survivor of the atomic bomb, participants walked to the Memorial Park, visiting the cenotaph, and laid wreaths in memory of the victims; they then proceeded to the Ceremony Site, via the Peace Light and the Statue of the Children of the Atomic Bomb.
Researchers at the Institute for Ethics in AI at the University of Oxford have separately deemed the issue ‘urgent and important’ and have stated that ‘Every day brings more examples of the ethical challenges posed by AI, from face recognition to voter profiling, brain machine interfaces to weaponised drones, and the ongoing discourse about how AI will impact employment on a global scale’.
