00:00Flavio, we're talking about the Pope's encyclical here focused on AI for the uninitiated, the non-Catholics among us.
00:07I am a Catholic and I didn't know what this is.
00:09I'm doing this for all of you. Explain what the encyclical is, why this is so important that he's doing
00:13this.
00:14Sure, good morning, good morning to you.
00:16Well, the encyclical, it's the most official act, basically, of a Pope.
00:21It's something that generally includes some of the priorities of a papacy.
00:26So in this case, it's particularly interesting the fact that he actually chose this particularly, very specific subject.
00:35We'll talk about this in a moment.
00:38I just want to point out, if it's possible, the fact that the Pope will be present at the presentation
00:44of the revealing of this encyclical tomorrow at the Vatican.
00:48And this is quite a first because it's probably the first time of a Pope in the modern era, in
00:56the modern age,
00:57presenting his own encyclical worldwide and, you know, to all people in the world.
01:05So it's quite a very, I would say, significant fact.
01:11I mean, shout out to producer Patrick Becker, who put this on our radar.
01:14But what have Vin Sicklehole's been like in the past?
01:17And why do we think he specifically chose AI, not one to shy away from controversial topics as Pope?
01:23Sure. He already spoke about AI in the past, I would say.
01:27Since the very beginning of this pontificate last year, he actually touched this subject many times.
01:35Most recently, also in a conference, he kind of underlined the fact that it's really important to try to understand
01:44where this technology is going
01:47in order also to form the younger generations, try to use, you know, the criticism also and try to better,
01:58to make the most of it.
01:59Because we don't expect, because the contents of this encyclical are still not known specifically, we will know tomorrow.
02:08But we don't expect something just like an essay on the artificial intelligence.
02:13We expect more something like how we can use this incredible tool, what opportunities, but also what are the risks
02:21and how is this is changing our lives?
02:24How is this changing the way we work, we relate, what kind of development we can imagine at some point?
02:33And, of course, what kind of moral issues, what kind of spiritual, social impact this might have?
02:40It's called Magnificent Humanity.
02:42Magnifica Humanitas, I believe, is the title.
02:45My Latin is rusty.
02:46We're going to go with that.
02:47It's better than mine.
02:48Flavia, talk a bit more about his engagement, the Pope's engagement with this subject.
02:51So I understand that the co-founder of Anthropic, the AI company, is going to be there with the Pope
02:56when this happens tomorrow.
02:58Again, Christina mentioning that he's not shying away from dealing with a lot of these, yes, controversial topics, but I
03:04think important social topics of the age.
03:07Talk a bit more, if you would, just about his level of engagement here in the world of AI, the
03:11way that he's approaching it,
03:13and how in the first year of his papacy here he's elevating the importance of this as something that he
03:17wants all Catholics to be discussing, debating, and talking about.
03:21Well, let's just say, yes.
03:23I must say that, of course, the discussion of artificial intelligence within the Vatican has been, of course, becoming more
03:33frequent, if you want, in the last few years,
03:36given the fact that, of course, the development of the AI itself has been, you know, kind of had quite
03:44an acceleration.
03:44But this is not a first.
03:48I would just point it out that Pope Francis II, for example, spoke about AI and the risk of AI
03:54in 2024 at GC7 in Italy.
03:57And also back in 2016, Italian media, you know, were reporting this quite clearly in the last few days.
04:09The Vatican started discussions, actually invited back in 2016, some scientists, some experts, some researchers from the Silicon Valley to
04:21the Vatican,
04:22and they started what they called Minerva Dialogues.
04:26So a kind of informal but cyclical discussions on the development of this science, technology in general, and also the
04:39impact, the possible impact, again, on social life, on moral issues.
04:44So I must say that is, you know, the Catholic Church has been quite on the front line on this
04:51for a while.
04:52Lovia, quickly, before I let you go, I do want to ask you if there's any updates on the contentious
04:56relationship between the Pope and the White House.
04:59Obviously, we had the vice president saying that the Pope should be careful when he talks about matters of theology.
05:04We had the president saying that he's weak on crime.
05:07I know Marco Rubio met with the Pope earlier this month to try to smooth things out.
05:13We've got about 30 seconds here, but did he succeed?
05:15And how's that going?
05:16He seems to succeed.
05:17I mean, of course, there was a formal statement after that saying that relations were strong.
05:23And definitely, I think that everybody's more or less stayed on the same principles as before.
05:28But, you know, the idea that they match and they say that it's going to be and they're going to
05:33stay some common ground,
05:34I think it was pretty much significant at that point.
05:39So, yes, I think it definitely helped.
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