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Address of Pope Francis
to the Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences
Monday, 23 September 2024
“The Sciences . . . must never lose sight of the importance of using that knowledge
to serve and enhance the dignity of the individual and humanity as a whole”
Dear President, your Eminence,
distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen!
I extend a warm welcome to the members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, and special greeting to the new members. Your insights and expertise are very important in the complex world in which we live. I thank the President, Joachim von Braun, and the Chancellor, Cardinal Peter Turkson, as well as the Academicians for highlighting the theme of the Anthropocene and Artificial Intelligence for study and discussion at this year’s Plenary Assembly.
We are all increasingly troubled by humanity’s profound impacts on nature and Earth systems.
I learned that one of you, Paul Crutzen, in describing these impacts on created nature, referred to them collectively as constituting the Anthropocene Age.
Members of your Academy were thus among the first to recognize the cumulative impact of human activity on creation and to study the risks and problems associated with it.
Indeed, the Anthropocene is revealing its increasingly dramatic consequences for nature and humanity, especially through the climate crisis and the loss in biodiversity.
I am therefore grateful that the Pontifical Academy of Sciences continues to focus its attention on such issues, not least because of their impact on the poor and the disadvantaged.
The sciences, in their quest for knowledge and understanding of the physical world, must never lose sight of the importance of using that knowledge to serve and enhance the dignity of the individual and humanity as a whole.
As our world faces serioius social, political and environmental challenges, we clearly see the need for a larger framework in which inclusive public discourse is informed not only by different scientific disciplines, but also by the participation of all segments of society.
In this regard, I welcome and highly commend the Academy’s desire to draw attention to marginalized and poor people in its various Conferences, and to include indigenous peoples and their wisdom in its dialogues.
Your Plenary Assembly this year also addresses emerging new sciences and innovations, and the opportunities they present for science and planetary health.
I am thinking in particular of the challenges posed by advances in artificial intelligence.
This development can be beneficial to humanity, for example, by advancing innovations in medicine and health care, and by helping to protect the natural environment and enable sustainable use of resources in the face of climate change.
However, as we know, it can also have serious negative effects for the general population, especially on children and more vulnerable adults.
Furthermore, the risks of manipulative applications of artificial intelligence to shape public opinion, influence consumer choices and interfere in electoral processes need to be recognized and prevented.
These challenges remind us of the inescapable human and ethical dimensions of all scientific and technological progress.
I would therefore like to reiterate the Church’s concern that “the inherent dignity of every human being and the fraternity that unites us as members of the one human family must underpin the development of new technologies…… Technological developments that do not lead to an improvement in the quality of life of all humanity, but on the contrary exacerbate inequalities and conflicts, can never be considered true progress” (Message for the 2024 World Day of Peace, 2).
In this sense, the impact of forms of artificial intelligence on individual peoples and the international community calls for greater attention and study.
I am pleased to know that the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, for its part, is working to propose appropriate regulations to prevent risks and promote benefits in this complex field.
Dear friends, at a time when crises, wars and threats to world security seem to prevail, your own quiet contributions to the progress of knowledge at the service of our human family are all the more important for the cause of world peace and international cooperation.
I thank you for your participation in the work of the Academy and offer you my prayerful good wishes for the deliberations of this Plenary Assembly.
Upon you, your families, and all those associated with your important work, I invoke God’s abundant blessings. And I ask you to remember me in your prayers. Thank you.
