For 17 years, the media ethics conference at the Pontifical University of John Paul II in Krakow has gathered media researchers from all over the country. This year it attracted a record number of academics. The reason? The main topic was the ethics of using AI in the media space.

Popping up on Twitter just before Easter was a funny photograph of Pope Francis looking super cool in a puffer jacket.

A recent photo created by an app showing Pope Francis wearing a designer bomber jacket went viral on social media, fooling millions around the world. 

Google is in a panic. It finally met its match and has a competitor. A code red was issued to staff members at the tech behemoth. What’s all the fuss about? 

Is Artificial Intelligence (AI) a good thing? The Oxford Dictionary defines AI as “the theory and development of computer systems able to perform tasks normally requiring human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making and translation between languages” …and a whole lot more. 

Universities around the world are taking steps alongside major technology companies to explore ways to bolster ethics education in the artificial intelligence field in line with an initiative supported by the Vatican.

Mbongeni “Bo” Ndlovu’s scientific journey began, in a sense, when he was a young boy living in Bulawayo, the second-largest city in Zimbabwe.

VATICAN CITY -- Given the huge impact technology and artificial intelligence will have on humanity and the environment, the Pontifical Academy for Life is seeking to foster more ethical and moral reflection.

VATICAN CITY -- The use of artificial intelligence in science and medicine must be guided by ethical standards that place humanity and the pursuit of the common good first, Pope Francis said.

VATICAN CITY -- Robots making human workers obsolete and artificially intelligent computers wreaking havoc on democratic debates are just some of the threats humanity faces in the increasingly digital future, Pope Francis said.

VATICAN CITY - The growing use of autonomous weapons systems poses serious risks to global peace and stability, a Vatican representative told a U.N. meeting in Geneva.

The other day, I got into a discussion about singularity and artificial intelligence with a computer science student. He’s young, smart and full of optimism. I’m older, debatably wiser and certainly more skeptical about the benefits of AI.