'Technology is never neutral': the Pope says the quiet part out loud, and it's time we accept that AI and tech's failures — and dangers — are human-made | Tech Radar

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'Technology is never neutral': the Pope says the quiet part out loud, and it's time we accept that AI and tech's failures — and dangers — are human-made

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Technology is so pervasive that it's often simultaneously sold as the cure for all ills and the source of everyone's problems. Most rational people — including, it seems, the Pope — don't believe this.

In his recent Papal Encyclical, the relatively new Pope Leo wrote extensively about the threats artificial Intelligence poses to humanity, but also buried among the 42,300 words was this:

"In the abstract, technology in and of itself is not a solution to humanity's problems, just as it is not inherently evil. In practice, however, technology is never neutral, because it takes on the characteristics of those who devise, finance, regulate and use it."

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It's not a new thought, but it's notable because, well, it's the leader of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics saying it, and it's also putting a fine point on the pivotal role that tech plays in our lives, and how we tend to both oversell and undersell its impact.

Technology writ large is just another tool, not a force for good or for evil; and its effects, for good and ill, will depend on who wields it, and how.

AI, of course, changes that equation, because people see — or at least infer — agency in its actions. Its prompt-driven conversations with us sound rich with a consciousness that's not there. Chat GPT, Gemini, and Claude often appear to have a point of view.

They don't — and I think much of the Pope's document puts the onus on humanity to wrest control of the narrative from AI. It's not smart or powerful enough to act on our behalf, and certainly not in our best interests, but doing nothing and letting future AI develop unfettered is most certainly a recipe for disaster.

This, though, connects to another thought in the Pope's statement. He writes that "technology is never neutral." One could argue that, by extension, AI isn't neutral either.

As generative AI inches closer to general artificial intelligence (GAI), or something approximating human intelligence, it does not necessarily shed the initial bias of its early training (or as the Pope wrote, "the characteristics of those who devise, finance, regulate and use it").

In the last few years, Open AI and Google have worked diligently to rid Chat GPT and Gemini, respectively, of bias, but there are so many avenues — data collection, labelling, training, how the systems are deployed — through which bias can causally enter the training that it's hard to believe they've scrubbed it all.

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Even as they do the work, the Pope's point resonates. After all, AI remains largely unregulated, with states in the US and governing bodies like the European Union playing catch-up, and working, as bureaucracy often does, at about a third of the speed of AI development (see 'AI Time'); which means it's up to us to remember that AI and tech are not inherently good or bad, and also not neutral.

The goal then should be for humans to act as the filter, constantly asking, how are we using these tools, and asking, what does that answer mean? Does the AI understand the goal, and does it take into account broader perspectives and ramifications? The answers will likely be no, which means it's our job to take a closer look at the end product AI is delivering and then process it for human consumption.

To be fair to the companies building these AI systems, the notion of tech neutrality and trust is not novel to AI. After all, the advent of broadband, access to the world's information, social media, and misinformation at scale predates generative AI access by decades.

We are not by nature a discerning people. We take the information provided on our various platforms for granted. No wonder, then, that when AI started confidently telling us falsehoods or misrepresenting people, we took it as truth.

As Einstein never said, "I fear the day when the technology overlaps with our humanity. The world will only have a generation of idiots." It's a quote widely misattributed to the genius, but also a valuable reminder: tech and AI are tools, and if we don't get a handle on them, we're just a bunch of tools. The Pope could've written that, too.

A 38-year industry veteran and award-winning journalist, Lance has covered technology since PCs were the size of suitcases and “on line” meant “waiting.” He’s a former Lifewire Editor-in-Chief, Mashable Editor-in-Chief, and, before that, Editor in Chief of PCMag.com and Senior Vice President of Content for Ziff Davis, Inc. He also wrote a popular, weekly tech column for Medium called The Upgrade.

Lance Ulanoff makes frequent appearances on national, international, and local news programs including Live with Kelly and Mark, the Today Show, Good Morning America, CNBC, CNN, and the BBC.

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