EU bishops set out 8 principles to keep AI ‘at the service of the human person’

The Catholic bishops of the European Union have called on the EU and its member states to ensure that artificial intelligence remains “at the service of the human person, the common good and peace,” setting out eight principles they want Europe to apply at home and promote abroad.

The declaration, titled “Europeʼs Responsibility in the Time of Artificial Intelligence: A Call to Safeguard the Human Person,” was adopted Oct. 16 at the close of the autumn plenary assembly of the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union (COMECE) in Brussels and published Oct. 19.

“Humanity stands at a decisive moment in which technological progress must be guided by a renewed commitment to the dignity of every person, justice and fraternity,” the bishops wrote.

The bishops acknowledged the “significant opportunities” AI offers but said its rapid development raises “profound anthropological, ethical, social and legal questions.” They acknowledged the EUʼs efforts to regulate the technology. They urged Europe to act “with urgency, ambition and responsibility” to strengthen its digital capacities and take a leading role in international AI governance.

The 8 principles

The bishops urged the EU and its member states to implement the following principles and promote them in international forums:

• Human dignity and human agency must remain paramount.
• The common good, solidarity, subsidiarity, care for creation, and justice must guide technological innovation.
• Responsibility, transparency, and accountability must accompany AI.
• AI must not become a source of discrimination, exclusion, or manipulation.
• AI must not diminish or displace the uniqueness of the human person, and people must not be “reduced to data or commodities.”
• The digital and technological commons require responsible governance.
• Democracy and the rule of law must be protected.
• AI must contribute to peace and human fraternity.

“Its future must be shaped not only by what technology can do, but by what human dignity, responsibility, solidarity and fraternity require,” the declaration concludes.

The Oct. 14–16 assembly opened with a Brussels presentation of Pope Leo XIVʼs first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, published in May, on artificial intelligence. Bishop Paul Tighe, secretary of the Vaticanʼs Dicastery for Culture and Education, gave the keynote address.

The bishops also sent a telegram to Pope Leo wishing him “a speedy recovery following your surgery.” The pope underwent lung cancer surgery Oct. 13 and was discharged from the hospital Oct. 17.

COMECE, founded in 1980, represents the Catholic bishops’ conferences of the EU member states before the EU institutions. Its current president is Italian Bishop Mariano Crociata.