Four years after Microsoft and IBM, on April 24, 2024, the Californian technology giant Cisco signed the Rome Call for AI Ethics, a pact presented by the Holy See in 2020 to promote an ethical approach to artificial intelligence. Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy for Life and a key architect of the Rome Call, highlighted the importance of the company as it “plays a crucial role as a technology partner for the adoption and the implementation of artificial intelligence.
“Today, we know that AI is no longer a subject reserved for experts and that it is more urgent than ever to think about the ethics of its development. The signing (by Cisco) of the Rome Call demonstrates this,” said Archbishop Paglia, in a press release shared by the Vatican.
PAOLO GALOSI | Romano Siciliani Agency
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On February 28, 2020, the Vatican welcomed the first signatories of the Rome Call for the Ethics of AI, a document developed by the Pontifical Academy for Life which advocates for the development of more transparent, inclusive, socially beneficial and responsible. Pope Francis publicly supported this initiative. Early signatories included Microsoft, IBM and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
Cisco Chairman and CEO Chuck Robbins signed the document this morning in Rome, shortly after meeting with Pope Francis. “The Rome Call principles align with Cisco’s core belief that technology must be built on a foundation of trust at the highest levels to ensure an inclusive future for all,” Chuck Robbins said in the Press release.
PAOLO GALOSI | Romano Siciliani Agency
An important figure behind this initiative is the Franciscan Father Paolo Benanti, scientific director of the RenAIssance Foundation, created in 2021 within the Pontifical Academy for Life and which promotes the Rome Appeal. He is an expert on the relationship between ethics and AI and teaches ethics of technology at the Pontifical Gregorian University. He is also a member of the United Nations Advisory Council on Artificial Intelligence.
“One of the key elements to address AI transformations is the implementation of its capabilities (…) in an ethical manner (which) requires action in multiple directions,” Father Benanti said in the press release. “Cisco’s signing of the Rome Call for AI Ethics today is a step forward in this process. »
