Eastern religions join call for ethical AI

Sect leaders from major Eastern religions signed a Vatican-led AI ethics code that also includes big tech companies at a ceremony in the Japanese city of Hiroshima on Wednesday.

The “Rome Call for AI Ethics” states that artificial intelligence must be developed “with ethical principles “to ensure that it serves the good of humanity,” given concerns about the impact on war, elections and jobs.

More than a dozen leaders from various Asian religions, including Buddhist, Sikh and Shinto groups, gathered at Hiroshima Peace Park, which was decimated by a U.S. nuclear attack in 1945.

Technology companies such as IBM, Microsoft and Cisco, as well as religious leaders Christianity, Islam and Judaism have already joined the commitment launched in 2020.

The signatories agree that AI systems “must not discriminate against anyone” and “there must always be someone who takes responsibility for what a machine does.”

Systems must be reliable, secure, easy to understand and “must not track or create bias.”

Following a two-day forum on the subject, the president of the World Fellowship of Buddhists, leaders of Shinto sects and the secretary general of the Baha’i International Community, among others, signed the appeal.

Bhai Sahib Bhai Mohinder Singh, president of the Sikh organization Guru Nanak Nishkam Sewak Jatha, said at the ceremony that the Rome Call for AI Ethics “provides a much-needed global moral check.”

AI “should never, ever exploit or destroy God’s creation, it should only seek to improve and enhance it,” he said.

A minute’s silence was observed in front of the ruins of a domed building that stands in memory of the 140,000 people killed in the atomic bombing at the end of World War II.

At the G7 summit in Italy last month, Pope Francis delivered an unprecedented speech on artificial intelligence.

Researchers at the University of Oxford’s AI Ethics Institute also called the issue “urgent and important.”

“Every day brings new examples of the ethical challenges posed by AI, from facial recognition to voter profiling, from brain-machine interfaces to militarized drones, and the ongoing discourse on AI’s impact on global employment,” the institute said.

© 2024 AFP