"Should AI be controlled like alcohol or smoking?"

Paolo Benanti, Pope Francis' advisor on artificial intelligence and ethics in technology, gave a historical overview of the evolution of technology and cybernetics and left a few questions about Artificial Intelligence (AI) hanging in the air.

The expert - author of numerous works that have focused on research in the areas of Internet management and the impact of the Digital Age, biotechnology, biosafety, neuroscience and neurotechnology - left as clues the possibility of controlling the use of AI and the necessary regulation.

"We made a mistake with tobacco, it was free for everyone. Now we're putting information on tobacco packets that it kills us. It would have been essential to have acted sooner," he noted, considering that "we're in the same era" with AI.

Emphasising the ethical approach to Artificial Intelligence, Paolo Benanti also argued that "only with an ethical approach to Artificial Intelligence is it possible to somehow make Artificial Intelligence and its algorithm comparable to democracy."

Pope Francis' counsellor congratulated the Universidade Católica Portuguesa for having "broken the box" by creating the Doctorate "Integral Human Development". "They've mixed up what's inside the box and are giving the world new knowledge. They've seen the problem, they don't have the solution yet, but they're trying to do something," emphasised Paolo Benanti.

O especialista considera a Universidade como campo responsável pelos próximos passos, necessários, na regulamentação da IA.

“A transparência não é tudo. Hoje ninguém controla o algoritmo, temos de pensar nisto e a Universidade tem de propor a solução. A missão é a de criar a génese das ferramentas da IA para a sociedade”, afirmou Benanti, dando o exemplo da carta de condução necessária para utilizar um automóvel. “Há um grande dever, da Universidade, de não só na parte na literacia, mas também na solução”, enfatizou.

O Programa de Desenvolvimento Humano Integral, criado pela Católica, tem como objetivo acolher bolseiros de pós-doutoramento que pretendam desenvolver trabalho relacionado com o Desenvolvimento Humano Integral, designado como DHI.

DHI is a concept first coined by Pope Paul VI in his Papal Encyclical Populorum Progressium indicating that the focus of development should be on "the development of each man and of the whole man" (n. 14). Pope Francis has renewed this intention of a focus on IHL, encouraging the Church to look for ways that "can better fulfil the needs of the men and women whom they are called to serve". One of the biggest changes was the creation of a Dicastery for Integral Human Development, bringing together all the activity related to this theme.