Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday greeted Pope Francis during the ongoing G-7 Summit in Italy.
In a video shared by ANI, Modi could be seen stopping and hugging Pope Francis. The 87-year-old leader of the world’s Roman Catholics was being taken around the venue in a wheelchair when Modi stopped to greet him. He went on to meet all the world leaders who had arrived there for the summit, including US President Joe Biden, British PM Rishi Sunak, and French President Emmanuel Macron.
Modi and Francis were also seen engaging in what appeared to be a light-hearted exchange. The feed from the venue did not have any audio.
Previously, Modi and Francis met in the Vatican City in 2021. The Pope is the head of the state of the Vatican and is the leader of the Catholic Christians, the largest sect of Christians in the world.
As per the PTI, India is expecting a visit from Francis the next year. India and the Holy See —as the Vatican’s government is called— have had diplomatic relations from 1948. In 1999, John Paul II, the Pope at the time, had paid a state visit to India and met President KR Narayanan, Vice President Krishan Kant, and PM Atal Behari Vajpayee. The state visit is the highest level of a visit by a head of state or government to a country.
In 2021, Modi and Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar were hosted by Francis. They discussed the Covid-19 pandemic and climate change among other issues.
Pope addresses world leaders on AI’s ethics
At the G-7 Summit, Francis addressed the world leaders in attendance about the artificial intelligence (AI) and cautioned them about the technology. He said the AI is so powerful a technology that it risks turning humans into mere algorithms. His address, the first by a Pope to G7 members at a summit, was focussed on the ethical considerations of the AI. He was specially invited by Italy’s PM Giorgia Meloni, the host of this year’s G-7 Summit.
Francis said it must be ensured that AI remains AI-centric and that all decisions ranging from critical ones like the usage of weapons to mundane ones remain with humans and not with a machine.
“We would condemn humanity to a future without hope if we took away people’s ability to make decisions about themselves and their lives, by dooming them to depend on the choices of machines. We need to ensure and safeguard a space for proper human control over the choices made by artificial intelligence programs: Human dignity itself depends on it,” said Francis, as per the Associated Press.
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