IBM and Microsoft have signed an “ethical resolution” with the Vatican to develop artificial intelligence in a way that will protect the planet and the rights of all people.
The pledge, called the “Rome Call for AI Ethics”, will be presented on Friday morning to Pope Francis by Brad Smith, the president of Microsoft, and John Kelly, IBM's executive vice-president, as well as Vatican officials and Qu Dongyu, the Chinese director-general of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation.
The two US tech companies lead the world in AI development, measured by the number of patents they have amassed.
The document calls for AI to safeguard the rights of all humankind, particularly the weak and underprivileged, and for new regulations in fields such as facial recognition. It said that there must be a “duty of explanation” that would show not only how AI algorithms come to their decisions but also what their purpose and objectives are.
Mr Smith said AI “must be guided by strong ethical principles that build on global human rights traditions”.
Francesca Rossi, IBM's global AI ethics leader, said: "The Vatican is not an expert on the technology but on values. The collaboration is to make the Vatican and the whole society understand how to use this technology with these values."
The Rome paper comes shortly after the European commission published its own vision of how to regulate AI so that it is used ethically.
The plans focused on high-risk AI applications and introduced a strict assessment before they are allowed to be used in the EU. Ms Rossi, who advised the EU on its AI strategy, defended its cautious approach to high-risk applications.
She said a risk-based approach is the best way to look at artificial intelligence applications to avoid blanket and burdensome regulation.
"What would (critics) want instead? The risk-based approach is the best one. The alternative is that regulation is very general — over all types of AI.
“AI has a lot of nuances, some are very high risk and some are not,” she added. “It wouldn't be reasonable to put the burden on applications that can be very beneficial but it is very important to make sure regulation is done the right way on high-risk applications."
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