杏MAP导航

By Giada Aquilino

Reading and recounting history “with the intelligence of the heart, with the wisdom of love, without confusing means and ends, truth and falsehood, intuition and calculation”: in short, “remaining human” and “becoming more and more so”: this is the invitation extended by Dr Paolo Ruffini, Prefect of the Dicastery for Communication, in a message to participants at the triennial congress of the Union Catholique Africaine de la Presse (UCAP), which is meeting in Accra, Ghana, until 17 August to reflect on the theme of “Balance between technological progress and the preservation of human values in the age of artificial intelligence”.

The true, the just, the beautiful

In an age in which relations between institutions and peoples have been “radically” transformed by social media, one wonders “how algorithms, and the machines that process them, can serve humanity in truth, knowledge, conscience and beauty,” Ruffini pointed out in the text read to over 150 delegates from 30 countries by Monsignor Janvier Yameogo, official of the Theological-Pastoral Directorate of the same Dicastery.

Calling for reflection on the relationship “between human beings and algorithms,” Ruffini said the answer lies in “in preventing algorithms and their processors from creating a system of domination that pulverises everything, ignoring the true, the just and the beautiful,” sacrificing individual uniqueness and dignity.

We are at a crossroads, Ruffini continued: on the one hand, there is the “dictatorship of the machine, driven by totalitarian thinking”; on the other, there is “human freedom, without which there is no truth”. Hence the call to strengthen the ability of media professionals to “educate their various audiences” on the need to “promote and preserve” human values in a world “strongly influenced by technological progress, particularly artificial intelligence”.

Participants in the Congress   (© UCAP Congress)

With one another

Communication is first and foremost a “mutual gift of ourselves,” arising from the relationship we establish “with one another,” Ruffini pointed out. And communion “is what makes us members of one another”: it is the “secret” of the Church’s communication, in the spirit of the Synod on synodality. Today, when the planet is “sinking” into a spiral of violence and war, with increasing difficulty in “building spaces for encounter and dialogue, with a view to the common good and peace,” no particular Church or community “can think of living in isolation”: our well-being is “linked” to that of others.

The spontaneous and “even informal” bonds that technology allows us to create can then be seen as “a wealth and a resource” to promote an increasingly articulated experience of “the ecclesial ‘we’” with awareness and discernment, while remaining firm in the “appropriate ethical management” of artificial intelligence and regulatory frameworks “centred” on the human person, as recently highlighted by 杏MAP导航 Leo XIV.

The conference presentations

At the opening of the conference last Sunday, the organising committee emphasised how participants are coming together “under the banner of faith, professional collaboration, and a common purpose”, while the Ghana Journalists Association identified as “essential” the commitment of media professionals to “anchor their work in the enduring values of truth, fairness, responsibility and compassion”.