Overview
- The pontiff warns that conversational systems that simulate feelings can manipulate users through covert persuasion and intrude on intimacy.
- He cautions that offloading thought to AI risks eroding critical thinking, creativity and genuine communication, urging guidance of innovation rather than a pause.
- The message flags the outsized influence of a few AI companies and the risk of behavioral shaping and even historical rewriting without oversight.
- It calls on platform leaders and developers to prioritize the common good through transparency, informed consent, clear labels for synthetic media, and protections for journalistic authorship.
- He urges media and AI literacy and personal safeguards for faces and voices, while coverage notes disclosed cases of severe mental-health crises after prolonged chatbot use.