Pope Francis will be the first pontiff to address a G7 venue. He's raising the alarm about AI

BARI: Pope Francis is no stranger to artificial intelligence a deepfake photo of him in a white puffer jacket went viral last year but his concerns about AI go far beyond an unflattering shot and are now taking center stage at the Group of Seven summit.

Francis will address G7 leaders on Friday at their annual gathering in southern Italy a first for a pope. He intends to use the occasion to join the chorus of countries and global bodies pushing for stronger guardrails on AI following the boom in generative artificial intelligence kickstarted by OpenAI's ChatGPT chatbot.

The Argentine pope used his annual peace message this year to call for an international treaty to ensure AI is developed and used ethnically.

He argues that a technology lacking human values of compassion, mercy, morality and forgiveness is too perilous to develop unchecked.

Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni invited Francis and announced his participation, knowing the potential impact of his star power and moral authority to twin a broadly shared concern about AI with his priorities about peace and social justice.

The pope is, well, a very special kind of a celebrity, said John Kirton, a political scientist at the University of Toronto who directs the G7 Research Group think tank.

Kirton recalled the last summit that had this kind of star power was the 2005 meeting in Gleneagles, Scotland, where members decided to wipe out the USD 40 billion of the debts owed by 18 of the world's poorest countries to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

That summit was preceded by a Live8 concert in London that featured Sting, The Who and a reformed Pink Floyd and drew over a million people in a show of solidarity against hunger and poverty in Africa. "Gleneagles actually hit a home run and for some, it's one of the most successful summits," Kirton said.

In his peace message, Francis echoed those concerns and raised others. He said AI must keep foremost concerns about guaranteeing fundamental human rights, promoting peace and guarding against disinformation, discrimination and distortion.

On the regulation front, Francis will in some ways be preaching to the converted as the G7 members have been at the forefront of the debate on AI oversight.

On the sidelines of his AI speech, Francis has a full day of bilateral meetings. He'll see Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as well as invited leaders from Algeria, Brazil, India, Kenya, and Turkey. He will also meet with G7 members, including Biden, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and French President Emmanuel Macron.