Thou shalt not let AI run amok: Vatican wants global rules (www.theregister.com)

The Vatican hosted a seminar titled Digital Rerum Novarum: Artificial Intelligence for Peace, Social Justice, and Integral Human Development, organized by the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences and the University of Notre Dame. In a message to attendees, Pope Leo XIV emphasized that “AI is, above all else, a tool,” and called for a globally shared, binding regulatory framework with enforcement mechanisms and institutions fit for the digital age. Panels covered risks from weaponized AI, cognitive integrity, business ethics, the future of work, and environmental impacts—highlighting datacenter energy consumption—and proposed policy ideas like universal basic income and basic capital to ensure equitable distribution of AI’s benefits. The significance for the AI/ML community is twofold: first, the Vatican’s moral authority reframes AI governance as not just a technical or economic issue but an ethical imperative with global reach; second, the call for binding international rules and enforcement ramps up pressure on policymakers and industry to coordinate standards for safety, labor transition, environmental footprint, and access. The meeting drew academics, NGOs and some industry voices (e.g., Jaron Lanier, HCL Tech), while many large tech firms were notably absent—an absence that may matter if global regulation advances without substantive industry input.