At its fall meeting in Brussels, the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union issued a two-page statement, “Europe’s Responsibility in the Time of Artificial Intelligence: A Call to Safeguard the Human Person.”
The bishops called on the EU and its member states to adopt and promote eight principles:
- Human dignity and human agency must remain paramount.
- The common good, solidarity, subsidiarity, care for creation and justice must guide technological innovation.
- Responsibility, transparency and accountability must accompany AI.
- AI must not become a source of discrimination, exclusion or manipulation.
- AI must not diminish or displace the uniqueness of the human person, and human beings must not be reduced to data or commodities.
- The digital and technological commons require responsible governance.
- Democracy and the rule of law must be protected.
- AI must contribute to peace and human fraternity.
“The Catholic Church will continue to accompany the European Union in a path that safeguards the human person in the time of Artificial Intelligence,” the October 16 statement concluded.