The Vatican Publishes a Note on Artificial Intelligence (1)

Faced with the rapid growth of Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems and the problems it already poses, especially with regard to anthropological and ethical considerations, the Holy See has considered it necessary to produce a Note on the Relationship Between Artificial Intelligence and Human Intelligence to examine these two points in particular.

The text first seeks to clearly show what differentiates human intelligence and AI, using the philosophical and theological tradition of the Church. Secondly, the Note examines the role of ethics in the development and use of this new tool. Finally, it examines some more sensitive areas.

Artificial Intelligence

In 1956, the concept of artificial intelligence was focused on “making a machine behave in ways that would be called intelligent if a human were so behaving” (John McCarthy). But according to the Note, “most contemporary AI systems, particularly those using machine learning, rely on statistical inference rather than logical deduction.”

“By analyzing large data sets to identify patterns, AI can ‘predict’ outcomes and propose new approaches. Such achievements have been made possible through advances in computing technology. . . as well as hardware innovations. . .. [T]hese technologies enable AI systems to respond to various forms of human input, adapt to new situations, and even suggest novel solutions not anticipated by their original programmers.”

“Many researchers aspire to develop what is known as ‘Artificial General Intelligence (AGI),’   [which is] a single system capable of operating across all cognitive domains and performing any task within the scope of human intelligence. Some even argue that AGI could one day achieve the state of ‘superintelligence,’ surpassing human intellectual capacities.” The Note rightly points out that, “Underlying this and many other perspectives on the subject is the implicit assumption that the word ‘intelligence’ can be used in the same way to refer to both human intelligence and AI.”

But the document notes that for humans, “Intelligence is a faculty that pertains to the person in his or her entirety, whereas in the context of AI, ‘intelligence’ is understood functionally, often with the presumption that the activities characteristic of the human mind can be broken down into digitized steps that machines can replicate.” The assessment of AI is therefore reductionist because it focuses on function.

Human Intelligence

The Note has a nice surprise in store: to address rationality, it calls upon Aristotle, St. Augustine, and St. Thomas Aquinas. This is how the distinction between “intellect” and “reason” is explained according to the Common Doctor: “The term intellect is inferred from the inward grasp of the truth, while the name reason is taken from the inquisitive and discursive process.” [1]

Rationality is then presented as a characteristic of human beings, which encompasses all of our capacities, whether they are directly rational, or because they are linked to this rationality in a more or less direct way. This is what is summed up in the famous definition of man as a “reasonable animal.”

The text then expands on the union of the soul and the body, on the human person and his social dimension, and on his affective capacities. The Note insists on the relationship of man to the truth, and on his mission to glorify God by the right use of his rational capacities, and to thus elevate himself towards God. St. Bonaventure is cited to support this poisition. Finally, this description of humanity includes the moral life.

A correct conception of human intelligence cannot therefore be reduced to the acquisition of facts or the accomplishment of specific tasks. Intelligence is capable of accessing the totality of being; it is not exhausted in what is measurable.

The Note adds that “this capacity includes, in a particular way, the ability to grow in the knowledge of the mysteries of God by using reason to engage ever more profoundly with revealed truths (intellectus fidei). . . . It follows that human intelligence possesses an essential contemplative dimension, [that is] an unselfish openness to the True, the Good, and the Beautiful, beyond any utilitarian purpose.” 

Comparison Between Human Intelligence and AI

The Note emphasizes that AI is capable of imitating certain operations associated with rationality, but that it only functions by executing tasks and manipulating quantitative data through computer logic: “It remains fundamentally confined to a logical-mathematical framework, which imposes inherent limitations.”

Human intelligence, in contrast, develops organically and is shaped by the experiences of the whole human being: AI does not have the capacity to evolve in this sense. Its ‘learning’ is fundamentally different from the development growth of human intelligence, shaped by the individual’s personal history.

The Note draws the conclusion that AI, despite its computing capabilities, represents only a fraction of the possibilities of the human mind. It does not have – and cannot have – moral discernment and social capacity. Thus, approaches based solely on this technology can lead to “the loss of appreciation for the whole.”

Inherent Dangers

An overly close equivalence between human intelligence and AI risks leading to a functionalist vision of life, according to which people are appreciated according to the tasks they can accomplish. But the value of a person does not depend on their singular abilities, but on the fact that they are created in the image of God and called to live by His grace.

Thus, the Note concludes on this point, “AI should not be seen as an artificial form of human intelligence but as a product of it.” 

In this first part, the DDF Note has clearly shown the difference between human intelligence (made in the image of divine intelligence and capable of discovering the truth that God has placed in his creation) and AI, which is produced by man and that only compiles and associates by statistical calculation, the data that its designer provides it.

Thus, the term “intelligence,” used for man and for AI, does not have the same meaning. The same is true for the use of the term in animals. In other words, there is only one true intelligence on earth, that of man, made in the image of God. And AI can only be called “intelligence,” because man conceived it.

1 Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, II-II, q. 49, a. 5, ad 3. Reason and intellect are two faces of intelligence.