Bishop John Arnold, Bishop of Salford and Lead Bishop for Communications for the Bishops’ Conference, has spoken ahead of the 60th World Day of Social Communication about the opportunities and pitfalls of AI, agreeing with Pope Leo that the value of artificial intelligence must never outweigh the importance of human personality and our capacity for decision-making.

“We must value artificial intelligence, AI, in as far as it can be of benefit and it is a wonderful invention. But with all inventions we’ve got to be quite sure that it doesn’t intrude on personality, conscience or on people’s freedom to be who we are – made in the image of God.”

“Many people are unaware of AI’s power to ‘persuade’, and if we allow AI to guide our decisions, we risk losing our sense of our own personality and humanity. The mechanical voice lacks the authenticity of the human mind, making its own decisions for the circumstances in which a person finds himself or herself.”

Speaking on our Catholic News podcast channel, Bishop Arnold also considered the nature of the synodal pathway, suggesting that synodality is “a doorway to wisdom” because it encourages encounter – talking and discerning together. He went on to explain that instead of being influenced by technology, “we can be positively influenced by other people.”

“This,” he said, “is the real strength of the Synodal Church at the moment – that sense of renewal that we’re living in changing times. We want to live Gospel values, but the way that we live those Gospel values needs to be changing because of the circumstances in which we find ourselves.”

Pope Leo’s message for the World Day for Social Communication resonated with Bishop Arnold. He said:

“Pope Leo is saying we must remind ourselves that artificial intelligence can be used to our benefit, but it mustn’t get to a place of priority in our lives that doesn’t add value. We must use it well, but not be governed or in any way dictated to by it.”

Linked to this, Bishop Arnold encouraged us to be aware of how much time we are spending using technology, and placed an emphasis on the primacy of human encounter.

“It’s very good to enter a place which is free of technological influence, to be able to be at peace with ourselves and to recognise who we are as unique individuals. The dialogue that we can have with other people around us is so important rather than plugging into some sort of ‘intelligence’ which is trying to make decisions for us. This does not deal with the factors or circumstances in which we find ourselves. Turning off the phone, being quiet and being in dialogue with people face to face is so important.”

The World Day for Social Communication will take place on Sunday 17 May, with a second collection in parishes in England and Wales to support the work of communications in the Catholic Church.

Bishop Arnold stated the ‘vital’ nature of communications in the Church, explaining that, “without good communications – using truth and disseminating truth – we can easily lose our way in the world in which we live and become puppets to other ideologies that are neither helpful nor progressive, and certainly nothing to do with Gospel values.

“We need the best of communications – not to dictate, but to help us to discern.”

Offering his concluding thoughts, Bishop John Arnold echoed Pope Leo’s call to preserve human faces and voices.

“People must not be forgotten. It’s our opinions, personalities and consciences which, working together, will give us a firm direction for the best solutions to the problems of our time.”