The Pope's AI warning – and how Restore split the right, again

About this episode

The episode discusses the Pope's warning about AI and the implications for humanity, alongside a political analysis of the right-wing parties in the UK.

For this week’s  Edition , Lara Prendergast is joined by the Spectator 's deputy editor Freddy Gray, associate editor – and host of the Holy Smoke podcast – Damian Thompson and consultant psychiatrist and Daily Mail columnist Dr Max Pemberton. This week, the guests examine the Pope's encyclical about Artificial Intelligence (AI), Magnifica Humanitas , which warns of the cost to humanity that this technological revolution could bring. This marks Pope Leo's first major policy intervention, a warning which Spectator editor Michael Gove celebrates in the magazine this week. Michael says that AI will be ‘as transformative as the Industrial Revolution’ yet decisions ‘about where this technology is going and how it might be deployed are concentrated… in perilously few hands’. Damian argues that the Pope has passed the first test of his pontificate, but is AI changing how we view religion? As Max reveals the lies that an AI model told his partner, the guests ponder: could AI really extinguish humanity? Also this week: can you tell the difference between Reform UK and Restore Britain? As a recent poll suggested that Rupert Lowe's Restore could harm Reform's chances in the Makerfield…

People in this episode

Host: Lara Prendergast

Guests: Freddy Gray, Damian Thompson, Dr Max Pemberton

Topics covered

• Artificial Intelligence
• Pope's encyclical
• political commentary
• right-wing politics
• technology and religion

Keywords

• Pope
• AI
• politics
• Reform UK
• Restore Britain
• Magnifica Humanitas
• technology
• religion
• by-election

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: The Spectator, Daily Mail, Reform UK, Restore Britain

Books & works: Magnifica Humanitas

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