Pope Leo underscores role of news agencies in post-truth world

Vatican - Pope Leo XIV underscored the role of news agencies in post-truth world and warned against use of artificial intelligence (AI) in obtaining information.

Leo’s comments came in a speech to executives of international news agencies belonging to MINDS International, a consortium of leading agencies. "The world needs free and objective information," he underscored.

"With your patient and rigorous work, you can act as a barrier against those who, through the ancient art of lying, seek to create divisions in order to rule by dividing. You can also be a bulwark of civility against the quicksand of approximation and post-truth," he said.

He strongly encouraged news agencies amid a double crisis they are facing, with economic pressures threatening their survival and consumers increasingly unable to distinguish truth from lies.

"AI is changing the way we receive information and communicate, but who is driving it and for what purpose?" asked the Pope. "We must be vigilant to ensure that technology does not replace people and that information and the algorithms that govern it are not in the hands of a few," warned Pope Leo.

Pope Leo himself has become a victim of the deep fake - fake videos of the Pope allegedly writing speeches using artificial intelligence have circulated on the internet.

The Pope earlier called for imprisoned journalists to be released and today said the work of journalists must never be considered a crime. Rather, journalism is a right and a pillar upholding "the edifice of our societies" that must be protected and defended, he said.

"If today we know what is happening in Gaza, Ukraine and every other land bloodied by bombs, we largely owe it to them," Leo said of journalists. "These extraordinary eyewitness accounts are the culmination of the daily efforts of countless people who work to ensure that information is not manipulated for ends that are contrary to truth and human dignity. "

Latvian national news agency LETA is also a member of MINDS.