Pope Warns Media of Algorithm Power: "Information is a Public Good"

Pope Leon XIV Calls for Media to Prioritize Truth Over Audience Attention
Pope Leon XIV warned media outlets this Saturday about the power and risks of algorithms, urging them to prioritize the pursuit of truth over the need to capture their audience's attention.

"Media and communication companies cannot allow algorithms aimed at winning at all costs a battle where attention prevails over fidelity to their professional values and the search for truth," cautioned the pontiff.

Pope Leon XIV issued an extensive message for World Communications Day, warning of the risks that algorithms, social networks, and uncontrolled technology may bring to human life and interaction.

Confronting the Digital Revolution
A section of this reflection addresses the media, whom the Pope calls upon to confront a digital revolution in which Artificial Intelligence (AI) and algorithms controlled by a few companies threaten to "erode" global society.

"Public trust is won through accuracy and transparency, not by pursuing any form of engagement," stated the Pope, alluding to the phenomenon of "clickbait."

Transparency and Protection of Journalistic Work
In his view, all content generated or manipulated by AI must be "labeled and clearly distinguished" from that created by people. Furthermore, media must "protect" the authority of the work of journalists and other content creators.

"Information is a public good. A constructive and meaningful public service is not based on opacity but on the transparency of sources, the inclusion of involved subjects, and a high standard of quality," he asserted.

Pope Leon XIV considered it "increasingly urgent" to educate people about media, information, and AI.

A Call for Collaborative Action and Digital Literacy
"All stakeholders—the technology industry, legislators, creative businesses, academia, artists, journalists, and educators—must be involved in building and implementing a conscious and responsible digital citizenship," he urged.

This guidance, he said, "will help everyone not to succumb to the anthropomorphizing drift of these systems," but to use them as "tools" and always verify them with external sources.

"Just as the Industrial Revolution required basic literacy to allow people to react to novelty, the digital revolution also demands digital literacy, along with humanistic and cultural formation, to understand how algorithms shape our perception of reality," the pontiff argued.