Pope, at G7 summit, calls for ban on lethal autonomous weapons
June 17, 2024
» Continue to this story on Vatican Press Office
CWN Editor's Note: On June 14, Pope Francis became the first pope to address a G7 summit as he delivered a wide-ranging talk on artificial intelligence.
“Allow me to insist: in light of the tragedy that is armed conflict, it is urgent to reconsider the development and use of devices like the so-called ‘lethal autonomous weapons’ and ultimately ban their use,” the Pope told the G7 leaders. “This starts from an effective and concrete commitment to introduce ever greater and proper human control. No machine should ever choose to take the life of a human being.”
Diplomats of the Holy See have repeatedly warned against lethal autonomous weapons, also known as “killer robots.” In 2015, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi said that “the prohibition we advocate is not so much concerned with the autonomy of these systems but the conjunction of their lethal capacity with the possibility of loss of their effective control by the human person.”
The G7, founded in 1975, brings together the leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States.
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