By Ngozi Onyeakusi—The Catholic Media Practitioners Association of Nigeria (CAMPAN) of the Catholic Diocese of Abeokuta recently marked this year’s 58th edition of World Communications Day at the cathedral of SS Peter and Paul, Itesi, Adatan Road, Abeokuta, Ogun State, as the Catholic Bishop in the Diocese, Most Rev. Dr. Peter Olukayode Odetoyinbo enjoined media practitioners to be on top of their games in accurate news reporting.

 

The annual event started with a thanksgiving Mass celebrated by His lordship, Bishop Most Revd Dr Peter Odetoyinbo. His sermon centered on this year’s theme, “Artificial Intelligence and the Wisdom of the Heart: Towards a Fully Human Communication.”

He reminded Catholic media practitioners of the mandate from the Holy Father and church, urging them to make good use of technological advancement of today’s world of artificial intelligence to propagate man’s co-creating nature without losing the wisdom of the heart.

Bishop Odetoyinbo, commemorated Catholic media men and women in the diocese for their works and  reemphasized the importance of the media in the society in building a fully human communication and the .

Immediately after the Mass, a symposium was held.

It was moderated by Mr Oluwafemi Adelodun, an IT expert and a principal officer of the West African Examination Council WAEC, Lagos Head Office who defined Artificial Intelligence as a development of computer systems able to perform tasks normally performed by humans.

He asserted parents moral obligation and responsibility to their children’s upbringing, describing it as the wisdom of the heart in a world where people are interested in short cuts to success and solving problems.

The director of Social Communication of the diocese, Rev Fr Greg Fadele, dissected the message of the Holy Father, the Pope on this year’s theme, saying the church welcomes AI as part of the tools for acculturation.

He said, the Holy Father raised deep questions about the nature of human beings, and the future of ‘homo sapiens’ in the age of artificial intelligence? Intentionality and Finality.

How can we remain fully human and guide artificial intelligence to serve a good purpose?

Theological anthological and ethical question. Bearing in that there are technical, scientific and political problems with artificial intelligence that can only be resolved by starting from our humanity.

Humans/machines The concern of the church

Pope Francis says: “… Wisdom cannot be sought from machines. Although the term “artificial intelligence” has now supplanted the more correct term, “machine learning”, used in scientific literature, the very use of the word “intelligence” can prove misleading. No doubt, machines possess a greater capacity than human beings for storing and correlating data, but human beings alone are capable of making sense of that data.” – 2024 World Communication Day message

Magisterium AI (M.Ai) – created by a U.S.-based company ‘Longbeard’, and aims to make Catholic insight and Church teaching available worldwide.

Provides a growing dataset of Church documents, making the Church’s teachings Catholic doctrine, teachings, and Canon law more accessible.

It can answer questions on Church teaching, practices, and other topics, explaining complex theological concepts in simple language.

It can be downloaded on both android devices and iPhone.

The difference between Magisterium AI and ChatGPT is that it is trained on a private database of only Church documents, and therefore less likely to likely to give guess answers.

At the moment, it is available in 10 languages including English, French and Spanish, and currently used in 125 countries.

All media technologies are gifts from God, and the Church must always take advantage of it for her mission.

Catholics need to engage this app to aid the work of evangelization particularly in the areas of formation like catechesis, proclamation and even spirituality.

In the religious sphere, today we have robot priests and monks:

BlessU-2: The Robot Priest in Germany to bless;

Mindar: The Robotic Buddhist Priest to teach and preach;

Pepper: The Robot Monk developed in Japan to perform funeral rituals.

The theological anthropological questions: Can machines truly bless? Are machines anointed? How far can machines replace human beings?

We must adopt a spiritual way of viewing reality, by recovering the wisdom of the heart:

In the Bible, the heart is the inward place of our encounter with God. It is from the human heart that evil intentions come (Mk. 7:21): Our reflections must begin with the human heart.

We must go back to the question of who we are as people created in the image of God (Imago Dei-created in image and likeness of God) (Gen 1:27)

Pattern of Development/Transformation: avoiding becoming rich in technology and poor in humanity.

Rm 12:2 “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of the minds so that you may discern for yourselves what is the will of God; what is good and perfect.

  1. d) The need to confront and interpret the newness of our technological innovation with the wisdom of the heart and rediscover the path to a fully human communication. Machine can not control us.

Interpreting reality with God’s eyes, in order to see their connections with divine plan and to uncover their real meaning. (Eyes of faith – 2 Cor. 5:7). Guided by faith and not by sight, we are full of confidence.

It enables us to integrate our decisions and their consequences, past and our future, individuality and our membership within a larger community. (Homo Communicans-being in relationship with God and one another)

Reviewing AI with openness but also with sensitivity to everything that is destructive and inhumane therein.

 

He gave an example of the Church’s Magisterium AI, an app that provides answers to any question about the Catholic Church.

He concluded by saying that man should not reduce humans to data and urged media practitioners to uphold the truth at all times. Avoid the exaggerated reduction of human thinking/intelligence to mechanical process. Also, he advised against counter disinformation, uphold the Truth and act as Professionals.

Lastly, he admonished journalists not be imprisoned in an “Echo Chamber” (believing only the opinions that coincide with one’s own)

 

Mr Peter Arabomen, an IT expert withFidelity explained that Artificial Intelligence is a programme designed to perform specific tasks, noting that anything outside the written programme was impossible for it.

He said AI is classified into three main types, Narrow AI, General AI, and Super AI. “Each type of AI has its unique characteristics, capabilities, and limitations,” Arabomen explained.

He concluded his speech with the answers a leading AI expert, Kai Fu Lee, gave when asked when artificial intelligence would be completely perfect like humans.

Arabomen said, “maybe in the next ten to fifteen years, maybe never.”

The secretary of the  National Union of Journalists, Ogun State chapter,  Comrade Bunmi Adigun wondered why journalists and media men were very few at the event, which he described as being “so packed with immense sources of information.”

 

Dr Malaolu, owner of Rock FM, commended the diocese for a fantastic outing, saying that the event was one he looks forward to every year.

At the end of the symposium, Chief John Ajayi thanked the Bishop, Most Revd Dr Peter Odetoyinbo for honouring CAMPAN with his presence amiss his busy schedule. He also thanked all the invited speakers and guests for making this year’s event a resounding success. He did not leave the Director of Social Communication of Catholic Diocese of Abeokuta out for organizing yet another wonderful event. Noting that the His Lordship Odetoyinbo emphasized that the importance of the message Pope as the centre of the year’s cerebration.

Finally, Ajayi promised the Diocesan President of the Catholic Youth Organization of Nigeria to foster a cordial  relationship between Rock City FM and the organisaiton.