VATICAN CITY: Pope Leo XIV has praised news agencies as essential bulwarks in an increasingly post-truth world while warning about artificial intelligence’s dangers.
He emphasised the world’s need for free, rigorous, and objective information during an audience with the MINDS International network of news agencies.
“With your patient and rigorous work, you can act as a barrier against those who, through the ancient art of lying, seek to create divisions in order to rule by dividing,” he added.
The Pope described careful, ethically-driven reporting as an antidote to the proliferation of junk information.
He highlighted the crisis facing media agencies whose traditional advertising models have been decimated since the internet’s advent.
Leo questioned who directs artificial intelligence and for what purposes while urging vigilance to ensure technology does not replace human beings.
He warned against information and algorithms falling into the hands of a few people.
Many individuals now get news from social media platforms that are scaling back content verification tools.
A recent survey found harmful content including hate speech has surged across Meta’s platforms after it ended third-party fact-checking in the United States.
AFP currently works in 26 languages with Meta’s fact-checking program across Asia, Latin America, and the European Union.
The Pope himself has been a victim of deep fake videos that use artificial intelligence to show him making fabricated speeches.
He repeated that journalists’ work can never be considered a crime while calling for imprisoned reporters worldwide to be released.
Leo paid tribute to journalists killed while working, describing them as victims of war ideology that seeks to prevent reporting.
“We must not forget them. If today we know what is happening in Gaza, Ukraine, and every other land bloodied by bombs, we largely owe it to them,” he said.
The Pope urged citizens to value and support professional agencies demonstrating seriousness and true freedom in their work.
He described free access to information as a pillar upholding society’s edifice that requires defence and guarantees.
Approximately 200 journalists have been killed in Gaza since the war’s start according to the Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders.
Twenty-two journalists have died in Ukraine since Russia’s invasion in February 2022. – AFP
