The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Director-General Qu Dongyu, is one of the first signatories of an ethical resolution on artificial intelligence (AI) endorsed by Pope Francis, which stresses the importance of minimising this new technology’s risks while exploiting its potential benefits.
“Artificial intelligence needs to be transparent, inclusive, socially beneficial and accountable,” Dongyu said, adding: “We need to ensure the human-centric approach in designing and implementing artificial intelligence today and in the future.”
The FAO Director-General joined Italy’s Minister for Technological Innovation and Digitalisation, Paola Pisano, Microsoft president Brad Smith and IBM executive vice president John Kelly III in signing the “Rome Call for AI Ethics” in a ceremony presided by Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, President of the Pontifical Academy for Life. European Parliament President David Sassoli was also in attendance.
In a message read out on his behalf at the event, Pope Francis said: “The scope and acceleration of the transformations of the digital era have in fact raised unforeseen problems and situations that challenge our individual and collective ethos.”
The Rome Call for AI Ethics refers to the need for “a highly sustainable approach, which also includes the use of artificial intelligence in insuring sustainable food systems in the future.”
Dongyu noted that “from a food system transformation perspective, FAO looks at digitalisation, big data and artificial intelligence as sources of hope.
He also pointed to the need to bridge the divide between developed and developing countries – six billion people are without broadband today, four billion without internet, two billion without mobile phones and 400 million people are without a digital signal.
Additionally, he noted there are significant gaps between men and women, young and old, and rich and poor, and also a gap in promoting dialogue, creating synergies and enhancing awareness for issues specific to digital agriculture.
Dongyu cited the International Platform for Digital Food and Agriculture, proposed by FAO and endorsed by 76 ministers earlier this year as a Platform that will strive to engage all actors, players and stakeholders within the agri-food system, and will activate cross-sectorial and cross-competence experts to consolidate, enhance and diffuse the state of digitalisation in the sector.