The Italian government has entrusted Franciscan friar Father Paolo Benanti, 50, to head the commission that is to establish rules for the use of Artificial Intelligence in the information sphere. Benanti, who takes the place of jurist Giuliano Amato, who resigned in controversy with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, is among the leading experts on the subject. The cleric is a professor at the Gregorian University, where he teaches Ethics and Bioethics, Ethics of Technology and Artificial Intelligence. He is the only Italian member of the United Nations Committee on AI. For the Franciscan professor, "mercy and equality will be fundamental in robots, but first of all doubt will be decisive. If we manage to include in ChatGPT the ability to doubt its own answers we will have achieved something that will respect the nature of women and men much more". These are the main moral values to be passed on to AI so that it "remains humane", according to an appeal by President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella. Benanti also calls crucial "transparency. We humans must always be able to know what the purpose of the machine is. Having a transparent robot allows vision and verification, and allows the true action of the one who can be ethical, which is the human". His strongest concern? "The use of AI to manipulate. This is the big fear for 2024: in the months when much of the West and beyond will go to elections, the latest frontiers are generative AI, which can create images and messages that can convey people's opinion".
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