A Lent of Patience – Does Your Smartphone Ever Have a Bad Day?

A few weeks ago, Pope Leo issued his message for the 60 World Day of Social Communications. This observance had its origins in the Second Vatican Council. While the first document of the Council addressed the Church’s liturgy. Sacrosanctum Concilium), the next topic the world’s bishops addressed was the Decree on the Means of Social Communication (Inter Mirifica, December 4, 1963).

The Latin title refers to media as “among the wonderful things” that humanity had produced – print, radio, cinema and television were central at that time. These means of social communication are intended to link people across place and time; keep them informed about their human dignity and what challenges it; entertain in ways that create beauty and uplift the human spirit; and educate about fundamental moral truths.

Already in the early 1960s, the bishops knew well the power of media to shape attitudes, moral norms, and make money. Remember that this was long before the Internet, smartphones, FaceBook and InstaGram and all their cousins, and the incredibly rapid deployment of what has come to be called “AI” or artificial intelligence. Social media both reflects our world and changes it, and thus it is a rightful concern for the Church. Because no matter how sophisticated or ingenious the technology becomes, your smartphone will never smile, suffer, or know how a person truly feels and experiences life.

In his message, Pope Leo says (I highlight a few striking lines): Faces and voices are sacred. God, who created us in his image and likeness, gave them to us when he called us to life through the Word he addressed to us. This Word resounded down the centuries through the voices of the prophets, and then became flesh in the fullness of time. We too have heard and seen this Word (cf. 1 Jn 1:1-3) — in which God communicates his very self to us — because it has been made known to us in the voice and face of Jesus, the Son of God.

... Preserving human faces and voices, therefore, means preserving this mark, this indelible reflection of God’s love. … If we fail in this task of preservation, digital technology threatens to alter radically some of the fundamental pillars of human civilization … By simulating human voices and faces, wisdom and knowledge, consciousness and responsibility, empathy and friendship, the systems known as artificial intelligence not only interfere with information ecosystems, but also encroach upon the deepest level of communication, that of human relationships.

The challenge, therefore, is not technological, but anthropological. Safeguarding faces and voices ultimately means safeguarding ourselves. Embracing the opportunities offered by digital technology and artificial intelligence with courage, determination and discernment does not mean turning a blind eye to critical issues, complexities and risks.

… There has long been abundant evidence that algorithms designed to maximize engagement on social media — which is profitable for platforms — reward quick emotions … . By grouping people into bubbles of easy consensus and easy outrage, these algorithms reduce our ability to listen and think critically, and increase social polarization, isolation, and feed into loneliness.

… In recent years, artificial intelligence systems have increasingly taken control of the production of texts, music and videos. This puts much of the human creative industry at risk of being dismantled and replaced with the label “Powered by AI,” turning people into passive consumers of unthought thoughts and anonymous products without ownership or love. Meanwhile, the masterpieces of human genius in the fields of music, art and literature are being reduced to mere training grounds for machines … renouncing creativity and surrendering our mental capacities and imagination to machines would mean burying the talents we have been given to grow as individuals in relation to God and others. It would mean hiding our faces and silencing our voices.

… As we scroll through our feeds, it becomes increasingly difficult to determine whether we are interacting with other human beings or with “bots” or “virtual influencers.” The less-than-transparent interventions of these automated agents influence public debates and people’s choices

… when we substitute relationships with others for AI systems that catalog our thoughts, [we create} a world of mirrors around us, where everything is made “in our image and likeness.” We are thus robbed of the opportunity to encounter others, who are always different from ourselves, and with whom we can and must learn to relate.

… Another major challenge posed by these emerging systems is that of bias, which leads to acquiring and transmitting an altered perception of reality. AI models are shaped by the worldview of those who build them and can, in turn, impose these ways of thinking by reproducing the stereotypes and prejudices present in the data they draw on. …We are immersed in a world of multidimensionality where it is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish reality from fiction. … The task laid before us is not to stop digital innovation, but rather to guide it and to be aware of its ambivalent nature. It is up to each of us to raise our voice in defense of human persons, so that we can truly assimilate these tools as allies. … We need faces and voices to speak for people again. We need to cherish the gift of communication as the deepest truth of humanity, to which all technological innovation should also be oriented.