The Pope has released a guidebook on AI ethics. Yes, you heard that right. The supreme pontiff has partnered with Santa Clara University’s Markkula Center for Applied Ethics to form the Institute for Technology, Ethics, and Culture (ITEC), a body that, according to its website, is designed to convene “leaders from business, civil society, academia, government, and all faith and belief traditions, to promote deeper thought on technology’s impact on humanity.” Think of it as a Vatican-led AI ethics think tank. Its first order of business is releasing a handbook, called “Ethics in the Age of Disruptive Technologies: An Operational Roadmap,” meant to help tech companies navigate the many grey areas of AI ethics. “The Pope has always had a large view of the world and of humanity, and he believes that technology is a good thing,” Father Brendan McGuire, a pastor and ITEC advisor, told Gizmodo. “But as we develop it, it comes time to ask the deeper questions.” “Technology executives from all over Silicon Valley have been coming to me for years and saying, ‘You need to help us, there’s a lot of stuff on the horizon and we aren’t ready,'” he added. “The idea was to use the Vatican’s convening power to bring executives from the entire world together.” To be fair, the handbook doesn’t just focus on AI and machine learning. It also covers other topics like encryption, tracking, and facial recognition technologies. Still, based on the text, the ongoing AI race certainly seems to be its…The Pope Just Released a Guide to Artificial Intelligence