(NewsNation) — A Vatican priest and technology expert believes “natural stupidity” and a disappearing middle class are more concerning prospects than the possible negative impacts of artificial intelligence.
“Let me express with one sentence: Not artificial intelligence, but natural stupidity. It’s the tools; it depends on the way in which we will use them. So the problem is always in the human being, not in the machine,” Father Paolo Benanti told NewsNation’s Elizabeth Vargas.
Benanti’s comments came on the same day that Pope Francis challenged leaders of the world’s wealthy democracies to keep human dignity foremost in developing and using artificial intelligence, warning that such powerful technology risks turning human relations themselves into mere algorithms.
Benanti said, without disagreeing with the pontiff, that he’s more concerned about issues happening right now.
“The extinction of the middle class. That is not so good,” he said. “You know, probably the extinction of human beings will not happen (soon). But the extinction of the middle class, this eruption of economy, that’s something that is already happening,” said Benanti.
Generative AI technology has dazzled the world with its capabilities to produce humanlike responses, but it’s also sparked fears about AI safety and led to a jumble of global efforts to rein it in.
Some worry about catastrophic but far-off risks to humanity because of its potential for creating new bioweapons and supercharging disinformation. Others fret about its effect on everyday life through algorithmic bias that results in discrimination or AI systems that eliminate jobs.
Benanti said he would rather look at the present than try to predict the future.
“Let’s look at the really near problem before addressing the end of the world,” he said.