As a revolution takes place in the world of communications, the Prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for Communication asked, “Are Catholic communicators ready to respond to the challenge of creating a community, a platform, of mutual sharing and collaboration” as a means to share truth and build a better world?

Speaking at the launch of the first national Catholic media conference taking place in Bangalore, India, on 23-24 November, Paolo Ruffini noted “We live in a time of passage: A revolution is taking place in the world of communication.”

This is our time

Highlighting the urgency of action, he said: “This is our time. (…) We are shaping it through what we do and through what we fail to do.”

The event, “ILLUMINAIRE: Nurturing Digital Stewardship in the Era of Artificial Intelligence,” aims to explore the impact of social media and artificial intelligence on the lives of consecrated people while promoting their responsible and ethical use.

Ruffini noted that “it is not only a matter of navigating the digital sea,” which, he said would not exist without people who have the responsibility to shape the world by telling and sharing the truth.

“Sharing is the keyword.”

He encouraged his audience to create a network in which to share stories and build relationships and to make use of artificial intelligence – which he said can be enormously useful but potentially harmful – without losing humanity, but “becoming more mature as human beings.”

He explained that the development of artificial intelligence in communication can help strengthen relationships between individuals or increase loneliness, “depriving each of us of the warmth that only true communication can provide.”

Responsibility in using AI

Ruffini expressed his confidence that AI may be used to foster equality – not “new classes based on informational dominance” grounded in new forms of exploitation thanks to “the possession of algorithms and the extraction of data from the inexhaustible mine of our lives.”

“The basic question is about humans, not machines; the relationship between humans, not algorithms,” he said.

Posing the question “Are we ready for this challenge?” Ruffini said, “We all know the power of the means of communication to draw out the best in every person.”

“Communication may be the instrument to build a better world, or it may continue to foment misunderstandings, resentments, enmity,” he said, noting that “No investment is too great for spreading the truth and triggering dynamics of good in our stories.”

Unity in diversity

Recalling Pope Francis’ encouragement never to be discouraged and to always foster synergy and collaboration between all members of the human family, Ruffini called for commitment “in building a communication based on relationship and on humanity to combat the virus of division.”

“In a time when so many are tempted to build a new tower of Babel, we are called to serve this miracle of unity in diversity,” he said, "We need to help one another to make it work."

“In a time when so many are tempted to build a new tower of Babel, we are called to serve this miracle of unity in diversity.”

Digital communication, he concluded, allows us to be connected in a way which was unheard of before, and he expressed confidence that from the gathering, “viable pathways to creating a community, a platform, of mutual sharing and collaboration,” will stem.