What does communication have to do with Artificial Intelligence? Or rather, what has prompted Pope Francis to want to dedicate the Message for the upcoming World Communications DayThe theme of the conference, to be held on May 12, 2024, will be "Artificial Intelligence and the Wisdom of the Heart: For a Fully Human Communication". It is no coincidence that the theme is "Artificial intelligence and wisdom of the heart: for a fully human communication".
The choice is undoubtedly due to the fact that this is a highly topical issue which, although not very young on the public and civil scene, has not ceased to gain ground in public opinion at least since last year. And communication is undoubtedly nourished by current events.
Then there is the contingent element, i.e. the applications of AI to the world of communication: think, for example, of the use of algorithms in social networks, the rapid transmission of information, the possibility of "building" sources of information and, consequently, of communication.
Aspects that certainly cannot be ignored, but which in no way reduce to this alone the scope of the great technological revolution of recent decades. Indeed, Artificial Intelligence is applied in a large number of fields, from healthcare to transport, from agriculture to heavy industry, which we often ignore even though they have concrete consequences on our lives, especially in the field of information technology.
Making communication human
Thus, the most important aspect of this interest of the Church in Artificial Intelligence concerns rather the focus of the next message, centered on the 'fully human' that is expected of every communicative mission: a service of good to people and not an obstacle to their life or to the free and conscious exercise of life in community. And a concrete virtue is added: the "wisdom of the heart".
This, then, is what the world of communication is called upon to do in the face of the unstoppable technological revolution of our time: to help explain it, contextualize it and accompany it with wisdom.
And in doing so, recognize that every new opportunity offered by technology must always be oriented towards the good of the individual, the human being, who is the only one with a heart, or soul if you will. And he is the only one who can ask the right questions of those around him. Including the sophisticated machines that today can allow him to increase all his benefits for the better.
Of course there are the challenges, the risks, the misunderstandings, the speculations... but what would our lives be without the opportunity to put to good use everything that strains our hearts, often making us less than human.
So, let us embrace this call to inhabit the world of Artificial Intelligence in general, and that of communication in particular, bringing to light the great intuitions of human ingenuity, the fruit of the spark that God has placed in each of us.
