Pope warns about AI, fake news and 'manipulating minds'

Pope Francis addresses the audience during his weekly general audience in the Paul VI hall at the Vatican. [Alberto Pizzoli, AFP]

Pope Francis warned on Thursday of the dangers of misinformation and its spread via social media and artificial intelligence (AI), cautioning it could be "misused to manipulate minds".

In his traditional New Year's address to diplomats at the Vatican, Francis lamented the increasing polarisation of society, "aggravated by the continuous creation and spread of fake news, which not only distorts facts but also perceptions".

"This phenomenon generates false images of reality, a climate of suspicion that foments hate, undermines people's sense of security, and compromises civil coexistence and the stability of entire nations," the 88-year-old pontiff said.

But his comments on Thursday come two days after tech giant Meta -- which owns Facebook -- announced it was ending its third-party fact-checking programme in the United States and adopting a crowd-sourced model to police misinformation similar to that of the Elon Musk-owned X.

In remarks directed at political leaders, the pope said: "In our time, the denial of self-evident truths seems to have gained the upper hand."

"These tendencies can be amplified by the modern communications media and by artificial intelligence; they can be misused to manipulate minds for economic, political and ideological ends," he added.

Francis, who has been head of the worldwide Catholic Church since 2013, emphasised the need for media literacy education to promote critical thinking.