The 50-year-old monk was elected as the chairman of the National Artificial Strategy Development Commission. According to the Italian media, the new commission will meet for the first time on January 9.
Until now, the 30-member committee of experts was headed by the former head of the Italian government and later a judge of the Constitutional Tribunal, 85-year-old Giuliano Amato. The lawyer, who belongs to the camp of the left party, recently left the head of the AI commission, Giorgi Meloni, due to political disagreements with the center-right government.
F. Benant has been a member of the committee since 2018. He is in favor of a global agreement on artificial intelligence. Prime Minister Meloni said that artificial intelligence will be one of the main topics of the Italian presidency of the newly started G7 countries.
Who is Father Paolo Benanti?
Born in Rome, Fr. Benant is a lecturer at the Pontifical Gregorian University. In Italy, he is one of the leading experts on artificial intelligence and transhumanism. He has already published many books on this topic. Last October, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres appointed him to the UN Commission on Artificial Intelligence.
Doctoral thesis of Fr. Bernani's diploma in moral theology entitled “Cyborg. Body and corporeality in the age of transhumanism” was recognized in 2012 as the best doctoral thesis in Italy in the field of ethics and social issues. He is a member and advisor to several Vatican committees. On February 12, 2021, Pope Francis appointed him a life member of the Pontifical Academy, and on February 18, 2023, he was appointed a consultant (advisor) of the Dicastery for Culture and Education.