A Japanese artist will use a song partly composed by AI to welcome Pope Francis, who recently shared his concerns about the technology.

The song, “Protect all Life – The Signs of the Times,” is written by Jun Inoue.

Inoue is a Catholic himself and created an AI program which can generate a song in just a few seconds.

“I thought I should give everything I had to the song, so I decided to put in all the cutting-edge technology I had,” Inoue told Reuters.

Inoue wasn’t sure about using AI but decided to do so because of how intertwined the history of technology and music is. However, last month, AI News reported on Pope Francis’s concerns about artificial intelligence.

Pope Francis shared his views on AI during a Vatican conference attended by theologians, academics, and tech executives such as Mozilla co-founder Mitchell Baker and Facebook’s director of cybersecurity law Gavin Corn.

“If mankind’s so-called technological progress were to become an enemy of the common good, this would lead to an unfortunate regression to a form of barbarism dictated by the law of the strongest,” Pope Francis warned.

The Vatican hopes the conference will lead to a future document on considerations to make when developing AI technologies.

Inoue’s song is unlikely to trigger much concern from the Pope and may even help to show how AI can have a positive impact on people’s lives if used responsibly.

Earlier this year, a firm called Canny AI used deepfakes of politicians to create the following music video for John Lennon’s track Imagine:

This is, as the creators’ intended, an example of AI’s dangers when it comes to convincingly manipulating content.

Politicians and other influential figures could be made to appear like they’re saying and doing things which they’re not.

Such means could be used to sway public opinion and influence elections, and it’s going to be very difficult teaching the public not to necessarily believe their eyes and what to look out for when it comes to fake content.

Pope Francis will visit Japan from Nov 23rd-26th and marks only the second papal visit to the country.

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Speaking during a Vatican conference last week titled ‘The Common Good in the Digital Age,’ the pope was joined by theologians, academics, and tech executives such as Mozilla co-founder Mitchell Baker and Facebook’s director of cybersecurity law Gavin Corn.

Pope Francis said at the conference:

“The remarkable developments in the field of technology, in particular those dealing with artificial intelligence, raise increasingly significant implications in all areas of human activity.

For this reason, open and concrete discussions on this theme are needed now more than ever.”

The Vatican hopes the conference may lead to a future document on AI outlining some considerations. Such a papal document would be similar to one released in 2015 titled ‘Laudato Si: On Care for Our Committee Home’ which focused on climate change and environmental issues.

One such consideration could be the concern that AI may be used “to circulate tendentious opinions and false data that could poison public debates and even manipulate the opinions of millions of people, to the point of endangering the very institutions that guarantee peaceful civil coexistence”.

In his speech, Pope Francis outlined his general concerns about the potential societal impacts of technology perceived to be advancements:

“If mankind’s so-called technological progress were to become an enemy of the common good, this would lead to an unfortunate regression to a form of barbarism dictated by the law of the strongest.”

Few would ever accuse the Vatican of being the most progressive (or, y’know, fun) institution on the best of days, but Pope Francis’ warnings echo those of many experts in the field.

To summarise, this is one time even atheists should listen to the church.

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