The proper development of artificial intelligence (AI) once again takes center stage through the Message of the Holy Father Leo XIV to the participants in the Second Annual Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Ethics and Corporate Governance on June 17, 2025. Two months after this message, some reflections on AI and Ethics are in order.

We are increasingly amazed by some of the results of the much-hyped AI. Along with the amazement and satisfaction derived from its immediate benefits, there is a growing concern among many about being sufficiently cautious in the use of AI. Its vibrant relevance has been further highlighted by the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to scientists John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton for their discoveries in artificial neural networks, which are fundamental to AI and machine learning.

It’s worth remembering that Hinton, upon leaving Google in 2023, advocated putting the brakes on AI development, stating: “I don’t think they should expand this further until they understand whether they can control it.”

Regarding the proper governance of AI, the “2nd World Forum on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence: Changing the Landscape of AI Governance” was held at the Brdo Congress Center in Kranj on 5 -6 February 2024, organized by the Government of Slovenia in coordination with UNESCO. Several initiatives of this international organization were offered there, including the “Global Observatory on AI Ethics” and the “UNESCO Network of Experts on AI Ethics Without Borders.”

UNESCO emphasizes: “It is changing the business model that drives AI and going beyond mere principles to develop a series of concrete and practical solutions to ensure that AI outcomes are fair, inclusive, sustainable, and non-discriminatory.”

Prudence—ethical excellence—has as its irreplaceable component “developing a series of concrete and practical solutions,” as UNESCO aptly puts it, without losing sight of the fact that prudence consists, eminently, in adopting appropriate means to achieve a goal as clearly defined as possible. Therefore, in the UNESCO quote in the previous paragraph, “going beyond mere principles” must be understood as meaning “getting down to business,” and not as neglecting due reflection on the end to which one aspires when acting.

If the goal isn’t as clear as possible, how will we find appropriate means to achieve it? The final words of the same quote: “that the outcomes of AI be fair, inclusive, sustainable, and non-discriminatory” hint at the goal. The term “fair” refers to the aims of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Reading, more than three decades ago, the book entitled  Ptolemaic Man: The Crisis of Technological Civilization  (1975), by the renowned Italian jurist and philosopher Sergio Cotta (1920-2007), I was struck by this quote: “it would seem that the greater the technological advance, the more vulnerable humanity becomes.”

The context in which Cotta reflected on how technology brings us enormous advantages, even though, in equal measure, these advantages come with risks, remained with me. This is how the author himself expressed it in his book  The Challenge of Technology  (1968): the technological era is, at the same time, a possibility of restoration and progress, and also of regression and death. From this ambivalence comes the challenge that invests—commits—every person in our time.

The achievement of good living, the goal of ethics, ultimately falls to each individual. Only through the right actions of each individual can we overcome any technological challenge.

In this sense, the combined personal commitments are trying, for example, to achieve appropriate general conduct regarding the use and disposal of a product of technology: plastics. For example, when we go shopping, for a few years now, we try to abstain from using plastic bags, even though they may immediately be very convenient and practical.

As Kant presents it, Ethics—ultimately, its goal: to live well—is possible because we act freely, because we assume a certain duty from the depths of our being, without coercion. However, before acting in accordance with what is presented as what should be done, it is necessary to consider what would happen in the world if everyone did the same. In this sense, the 41st UNESCO meeting, held in Paris from November 9 to 24, 2021, published the “Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence,” available online. The term “recommendation” refers to the freedom of each individual to assume what is expressed therein.