Meeting the pope’s call to put humanity first in a world of artificial intelligence | Letter
Dr Susan Oman on a campaign designed to raise public awareness of AI, arguing that while governments, faith leaders, and tech bosses debate AI's future, the public is consistently left out. She cites evidence showing public concern about AI has risen by 10% in two years, and 91% believe fairness should be prioritized over economic gain.
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Key points
- Public consistently excluded from AI debates despite being most affected
- Public concern about AI rose by 10% in two years
- 91% believe fairness should be prioritized over economic gain
- No national program exists to help the public understand or have a say in AI
Why it matters
This matters because public consistently excluded from AI debates despite being most affected.
Technical impact
May affect model selection, inference cost, product capability, and evaluation benchmarks.
Dr Susan Oman on a campaign that is designed to raise public awareness of AI
Your editorial on Pope Leo XIV’s call to centre human dignity in AI debate makes an important argument (The Guardian view on the Pope and Claude: Leo XIV’s encyclical on AI is right to put humanity first, 25 May). While governments, faith leaders and tech bosses debate the future of AI, one group is consistently left out of the conversation: the public, the very people whose lives the technology is shaping.
Last week, I gave evidence on AI sovereignty to the all-party parliamentary group on AI that aligns with Pope Leo’s position. I argued that AI sovereignty was a series of deeply human and societal questions that exceed technical, material and macroeconomic concerns. I showed that public concern about AI has risen by 10% in two years, and that 91% believe fairness should be prioritised over economic gain. Yet there is no national programme to help the public understand, trust or have a say in AI.
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