Crux

One of the stories surrounding the conclave to elect Pope Francis’s successor – set to open on May 7 – is the unfamiliarity of the cardinal electors with one another. They are not perfect strangers to one another – not necessarily or in the main – but many of them don’t really know each other that well. A record number of cardinals are eligible to vote for the next pope – 135 are under 80, although at least two will not be attending. Francis appointed most of them. Many of them are from countries that never had a cardinal before, and their guys aren’t often in Rome meeting the other members of this very exclusive club. But I wonder: Do they know each other on Facebook or Instagram? This came to mind when I saw a post on X (formally Twitter). It played an interview with Mark Zuckerberg – the founder of Facebook – on the advancement of Artificial Intelligence on social media, and how people are using AI to form “personal relationships” with artificial people. “I think as the personalization loop kicks in, and the AI just starts to get to know you better and better, I think that will just be really compelling,” Zuckerberg says. Zuckerberg cites a statistic according to which the average American would have fewer than three friends. “[T]he average person has demand for something meaningfully more,” Zuckerberg says, “I guess it is like 15 friends or something.” He speculates that people are just too busy for more than three. “But the average person wants more connectivity connection than they have,” he says in explanation of the reason for which “virtual friends” are becoming more popular. This was an issue well before the explosion of AI in the past two years. Many people have hundreds of Facebook “friends” many of them real people they have never really met. They have “friendships” with these people, but both of them get to present a highly curated digital version of themselves – an artificial version, in a word — usually much better than their real, natural, actual selves (and occasionally much worse). I was in my early 30s when Facebook came out and am in my 50s now. I have been able to reacquaint myself with many old friends from high school and university (and am so glad about this), but there are a number of people I don’t actually know, who are on my Facebook “friends” list. (I admit, I prefer the term “following” on Instagram and X.) There have been various scandals on social media, where people are attacked for saying things seen as offensive, but defending themselves by declaring, “It was just a joke!” They may have a point: Often a person can make a joke to close friends that would seem very offensive to someone who didn’t know them and weren’t able to see the context of what they said. But on social media, a thousand people might “like” the statement: Some because they are the authors actual friends, others because they do get the context and joke, and quite a few because they are, well, sociopaths. The thousands who are offended are offended because out of context, the statement was offensive. The algorithms that determine the content users see on social media platforms – the algorithms now apparently being somehow incorporated into these emerging AI “persons” – track individuals’ posts and “engagement” with others’ posts, and then show users content the algorithms “think” the users want to see, or else they show them things they think will make users angry – there is some overlap in the categories – basically, anything the algorithm determines likely to garner a click. This puts people into echo chambers and is creating a new tribal culture that we as a society haven’t learned to deal with. Yet Zuckerberg is not pointing out the dangers caused by “artificial” friends. He is suggesting they have an important role to play. “I think that a lot of these things that today there might be a little bit of a stigma around, I would guess that over time, we will find the vocabulary as a society to be able to articulate why that is valuable and why the people who are doing these things… like why they are rational for doing it, and why it is valuable for their lives, but also I think the field is very early,” he says. Reading the news – and mea culpa for that – the questions facing the Church as we enter the conclave are centered on conservatives focused on “traditional values” and Latin Masses and progressives pushing for gay marriage and women clergy. These are the debates of the second half of the 20th century. The first part of the 21st century sees a society questioning what it means to be human, with “post humanism” being pushed by the leaders of many technology firms. “I mean there are a handful of companies that are doing virtual therapists and there are virtual girlfriends and stuff, but it is very early,” Zuckerberg points out in his interview. Call me a hopeless naif, but I think the cardinals would do well as they enter the conclave next week to remember the words of Jesus Christ in the Gospel according to John: This is my commandment: Love one another, as I have loved you. No one can have greater love than to lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends, if you do what I command you. I shall no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know the master’s business; I call you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have learnt from my Father. He probably wasn’t asking to be “Liked” on social media. Follow Charles Collins on X: @CharlesinRome

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Crux. Anytime. Anywhere.

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