The “two-day” training and refresher course (6-7 September 2024) at the Alphonsian Academy dedicated to “the educational potential of AI” ended on the afternoon of Saturday 7 September → . The initiative, dense and rich in content, with which the Pontifical Higher Institute of Moral Theology began a new training project that is in line with the paths of the Second and Third Cycle, saw the participation of 56 “students”: 25 in person, 8 in mixed mode, and 23 online.
A special thanks goes to the speakers who animated the various sessions of this first teaching module. In order, Prof. Stefano Pasta, a member of the Cremit staff → – Research Center on Media Education, Innovation and Technology – Prof. Andrea Pizzichini, professor at the Accademia Alfonsiana, and Prof. Angelo Bertolone, also a collaborator of Cremit.
With this first training activity and with the subsequent meetings of February 28 and May 30-31, the Academy gives substance and concreteness to one of the short-term objectives of the Quality Improvement Plan 2023-2028, namely the need to “plan internal courses of didactic improvement for teachers and other possible users” (rec. 4, obb. 1). In this line we understand the purpose, inscribed in the path, of offering to the many students who have attended our classrooms for the license, doctorate, post-doctoral paths, new spaces for training and updating on emerging theological-moral issues and, in perspective, to give further consistency to the association Alumni Academiae Alfonsianae. Obviously, the proposal and participation in these educational activities, which we hope will be increasingly enriched with the contribution of the same users, are always open, according to the spirit of the Alphonsian Academy, to those who, even if not “already students,” wish to deepen moral knowledge in its many inter- and trans-disciplinary aspects.
The working group (Coordination) called to structure the course allowed itself to be provoked by reality. We borrow some words of the Holy Father to present and motivate the theme chosen for this first formative year. In a brief passage from his recent address to the G7, Pope Francis said, “Many of us have been struck by the applications easily available online for composing a text or producing an image on any theme or subject. Particularly attracted to this perspective are students who, when they have to prepare papers, make disproportionate use of them.” Far more “prepared and accustomed to the use of artificial intelligence than their professors,” however, they not infrequently forget “that so-called generative artificial intelligence, in the strict sense, is not really ‘generative,’” rather it is “‘reinforcing,’ in the sense that it rearranges existing content, helping to consolidate it, often without checking whether it contains errors or preconceptions.”[1] In this way,” the Pontiff continues, “one runs the risk, among others, of undermining the educational process in concise. The education that should provide students with the possibility of authentic reflection runs the risk of being reduced to a repetition of notions, which will be increasingly valued as unobjectionable, simply because of their continual repetition.”[2]
These considerations, briefly re-presented, well frame and motivate the general theme that we would like to explore in the course of the academic year 2024-2025, namely that of Artificial Intelligence. But they also outline the scope, or if we want the specific angle with which we want to approach the topic, which is the strictly didactic one, well aware that «the notable developments in the technological field, particularly those on artificial intelligence, present increasingly significant implications in all sectors of human action.” [3] In this regard, we could say – again with Pope Francis – «that the “digital galaxy”, and in particular the so-called “artificial intelligence”, is right at the heart of the epochal change that we are experiencing.” [4]
It is indeed undeniable, as the Pontiff notes in his Message for the 57th World Day of Peace, that over the last few decades “the progress of information technology and the development of digital technologies […] have already begun to produce profound transformations in global society and its dynamics. The new digital tools are changing the face of communications, public administration, education, consumption, personal interactions and countless other aspects of daily life.” [5] And, it is equally undeniable that the importance acquired by artificial intelligence, indicated by the Pontiff in several places in his teaching, poses challenges that are not only “technical, but also anthropological, educational, social and political.” [6] Hence the urgent need – already underlined by Vatican II – to accompany the expansion of technology with “adequate training in responsibility for its development.” [7] “Simply educating people on the correct use of new technologies is not enough.” The Pontiff noted in February 2020 in his speech to the participants in the Plenary of the Pontifical Academy for Life, “There is a need for broader educational action. We need to develop strong motivations to persevere in the search for the common good, even when there is no immediate benefit from it.” [8]
Young people, but not only them, the Pontiff underlines in the aforementioned Message for the World Day of Peace “are growing up in cultural environments pervaded by technology and this cannot fail to call into question the methods of teaching and training. Education in the use of forms of artificial intelligence should aim above all to promote critical thinking.” To develop “a capacity for discernment in the use of data and content collected on the web or produced by artificial intelligence systems.” And for their part, “schools, universities and scientific societies are called to help students and professionals to make their own the social and ethical aspects of the development and use of technology.” [9]
These, then, are the motivations, possible themes, provocations and challenges that have oriented the Coordination in thinking about and proposing the annual training course; the intent that has guided the preparatory work and that will now guide the steps of proposing the contents has not been and will not be to want or have to give, especially in the first meetings, ultimate answers on such a broad topic. Neither has it been and will not be to want or need to offer absolute and decisive educational solutions. Rather, it has been and will be the “shared need” to be able to ask the question on the subject of Artificial Intelligence, in order to give rise to “truly inclusive forms of dialogue” – as the Pope always stresses – capable “of discerning wisely how to put artificial intelligence and digital technologies at the service of the human family.”[10]
The hope, also shared during the first teaching module, is that this small seed can, with everyone’s help, take root and proliferate.
Antonio Donato, C.Ss.R.
Preside dell’Accademia Alfonsiana
Note:
[1] Francis, «Address to the G7 in Borgo Egnazia», (14.06.2024), in https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/it/bollettino/pubblico/2024/06/14/0504/01030.html#integrale [accessed: 19.8.2024].
[2] Ibid.
[3] Francis, «Address to the Participants in the Seminar “The Common Good in the Digital Age”, promoted by the Pontifical Council for Culture and the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development», (27.9.2024), in https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/it/speeches/2019/september/documents/papa-francesco_20190927_eradigitale.html [accessed: 19.8.2024].
[4] Francis, «Address to the Participants in the Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical Academy for Life», (28.2.2020), in https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/it/speeches/2020/february/documents/papa-francesco_20200228_accademia-perlavita.html [accessed: 19.8.2024]. Digital innovation «affects our way of understanding the world and ourselves. It is increasingly present in human activity and even in human decisions, and is thus changing the way we think and act. Decisions, even the most important ones such as those in the medical, economic or social fields, are today the fruit of human will and a series of algorithmic contributions. The personal act finds itself at the point of convergence between the specifically human contribution and automatic calculation, so that it is increasingly complex to understand its object, predict its effects, and define its responsibilities» (Ibid.).
[5] Francis, «Message for the 57th World Day of Peace (1.1.2024) – Artificial Intelligence and Peace», (8.12.2023), in https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/it/messages/peace/documents/20231208-messaggio-57giornatamondiale-pace2024.html [accessed: 19.8.2024], n. 2.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Ibid. «In other words: it is not enough to simply rely on the moral sensitivity of those who research and design devices and algorithms; instead, we need to create intermediate social bodies that ensure representation of the ethical sensitivity of users and educators» (Francis, «Address to Participants in the Plenary of the Pontifical Academy for Life»).
[8] Francis, «Address to the Participants in the Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical Academy for Life». «We must remember that scientific research and technological innovations are not disembodied from reality and “neutral”, but subject to cultural influences. As fully human activities, the directions they take reflect choices conditioned by the personal, social and cultural values of each era. The same can be said for the results they achieve: precisely because they are the fruit of specifically human approaches to the surrounding world, they always have an ethical dimension, closely linked to the decisions of those who design the experimentation and direct production towards particular objectives» (Francis, «Message for the LVII World Day of Peace (1.1.2024) – Artificial Intelligence and Peace», n. 2).
[9] Francis, «Message for the LVII World Day of Peace (1.1.2024) – Artificial Intelligence and Peace».
[10] Francis, «Address to the participants in the “Minerva Dialogues” meeting promoted by the Dicastery for Culture and Education», (27.3.2023), in https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/it/speeches/2023/march/documents/20230327-minerva-dialogues.html [accessed: 19.8.2024]; cf. Francis, «Message for the 57th World Day of Peace (1.1.2024) – Artificial Intelligence and Peace», n. 6; Francis, «Address to the Participants in the Seminar “The Common Good in the Digital Age”, promoted by the Pontifical Council for Culture and the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development».
