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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
ARTICLE VIEW:
Vatican gathers world’s big thinkers ahead of first-ever pop concert
By Christopher Lamb, Antonia Mortensen, CNN
Updated:
6:42 PM EDT, Sat September 13, 2025
Source: CNN
The Vatican has brought together an eclectic mix of thinkers and music
artists as it seeks to influence both the development of artificial
intelligence and the future of humanity.
A summit held Friday and Saturday on “human fraternity” convened
Nobel prize winners to discuss everything from agriculture to the
economy to sport, before culminating with an historic concert in St.
Peter’s Square directed by American singer-songwriter Pharrell
Williams and celebrated Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli.
Among those taking part in the AI discussions was , front man for the
Black Eyed Peas, who has been involved with AI since 2012, after
attending classes by the late Patrick Winston, a computer scientist
from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The rapper and
singer, who heads a technology company called and supports computer
science education in Los Angeles, believes the church and Pope Leo XIV
have a role to play in developing AI that serves humanity.
He told CNN that the Vatican event offered a “safe haven” for
brainstorming on AI. It “demands that people center themselves around
what’s good for humanity,” he said, and “that they build systems
that are for community and the improvement of society. That’s the
thesis of why they come to the Vatican.”
He added: “I think governments need to get up to speed and put some
regulations and governance in place, not to stifle growth but just to
ensure that society is safe.”
For several years, the Vatican has been pushing for a more ethical AI
through meetings with leaders of tech companies, and Pope Francis
called in 2023 for a
The latest discussions, which took place in Rome’s Palazzo Altieri,
covered similar themes, with speakers including Geoffrey Hinton, known
as “the Godfather of AI,” physicist and author Max Tegmark of MIT,
Jimena Sofía Viveros Álvarez, a scholar and leading voice for ethical
AI, and Marco Trombetti, founder and chief executive of Translated,
which utilizes AI for translation services.
Trombetti, who uses a mix of AI and human translators, told CNN that
the development of AI risks creating a “digital divide” between
countries which do and do not have access to the technology. He
described the Vatican’s role in discussions as significant because
Pope Leo is a “magnet for talent” who has an “incredible power
for spreading ideas.”
The latest summit was in the works before Pope Francis died in April,
triggering the process to elect his successor. Organizers then
scrambled to prepare the event, which included a round table on the
news media in which Mark Thompson, the chief executive and chairman of
CNN, took part, as did Maria Ressa, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and
chief executive of the Rappler news site.
On Saturday, a “human constitutional assembly” was presided over by
Graça Machel, widow of South Africa’s late President Nelson Mandela,
and attended by several Nobel laureates.
While Italian-centric and dominated by speeches, the event underlined
the Vatican and the papacy’s convening power. Ressa, who was awarded
the Nobel for efforts to safeguard freedom of expression in the
Philippines, told CNN that “if you don’t talk about humanity at the
Vatican, I don’t know what else (you would talk about).”
For her part, Machel said the event showed that leaders have the
capacity to “re-design the world” to protect life and ensure people
have work, food and shelter.
Pope Leo addressed the participants Friday in the Vatican’s apostolic
palace, where he urged them to “identify local and international ways
of developing new forms of social charity” and to see the “image of
God in the face of the poor, the refugee and even the adversary.”
Later that evening, he sent a message thanking people on the Italian
island of Lampedusa, a frequent entry point for migrants from north
Africa, for welcoming new arrivals and hinting that he could make a
visit. Back in 2013, Pope Francis made his first visit outside of Rome
to Lampedusa.
Speaking about Leo’s election as the first American pope, said it was
a “beautiful” thing given “all the things that are happening in
America.” On Friday, an undocumented migrant in a suburb of Chicago
was by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer after
resisting arrest. “I wish we treated Chicago and inner cities better
going through tough times with a human, delicate approach,” Will.i.am
said. “The fact that we have a pope from Chicago gives me hope.”
The concert held in St. Peter’s Square on Saturday evening, was open
to everyone, and the first of its kind to be held in the Vatican. The
line-up included John Legend, Teddy Swims, Karol G and featured an to
performing by which includes brothers Gene and Terrence Thornton (No
Malice and Pusha T). , who was not performing at Saturday’s event,
said he hoped that the crowd might sing one of the Black Eyed Peas’
best known songs – “Where Is The Love?” – because “the world
needs it.”
Meanwhile, as the summit was taking place, Pope Leo received the
diplomatic credentials of the new US Ambassador to the Holy See, Brian
Burch. Burch, who is from Chicago, was the co-founder of Catholic Vote,
a political organization that backed President Donald Trump in the 2024
election. While presenting his credentials, he gave Leo a cake to mark
the pope’s 70th birthday this Sunday. According to the US Embassy to
Holy See X account, during their meeting pope “underscored that our
political differences can never be resolved with violence and told
Ambassador Burch that he was praying for the widow of Mr. Kirk and his
children.”
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