ROME (Reuters) -Pope Francis will attend this year's Group of Seven (G7) leaders' summit to discuss the challenges posed by Artificial Intelligence (AI), Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Friday.
The meeting is being held in the southern Italian region of Puglia from June 13 to 15 and draws together the leaders of the United States, Germany, Britain, France, Italy, Canada and Japan, as well as a few specially invited guests.
"It is the first time in history that a pontiff will take part in the workings of a G7," Meloni said in a video message.
She said he would join a session dedicated to AI, calling it one of "the greatest anthropological challenges of our time".
"I am convinced that the presence of his Holiness will give a decisive contribution to drawing up an ethical and cultural regulatory framework to Artificial Intelligence," she said.
Italy, which currently holds the rotating chair of the G7, earlier this week approved a bill aimed at laying down ground rules for the use of AI, earmarking investment in the sector and setting sanctions for AI-related crimes.
"(It is) a technology that can generate great opportunities, but also brings enormous risks, as well as inevitably affecting global balances," Meloni said on Friday, adding that AI had to be "both human-centred and human-controlled."
(Reporting by Crispian Balmer, editing by Gavin Jones and Alex Richardson)
