The Pope’s AI Guy Is Worried About ‘Cartel’ Behavior Among Big Labs
Paolo Benanti, a Franciscan friar who advises the Vatican on AI ethics, warns that dominant AI laboratories may be consolidating power in ways that crowd out public accountability. He argues that existential doomsday debates are drawing attention away from the more immediate need for democratic governance of AI development.
Why this matters: The concern here is not about rogue robots. It is about a small number of private companies controlling technology that affects everyone, with limited public input on the rules. When the debate stays focused on sci-fi catastrophe, practical questions get skipped: who decides how these systems are built, who profits, and who answers when something goes wrong. Cartel-like behavior in any industry tends to end the same way — concentrated power, less competition, and the public left out of decisions that directly affect them.
Who should care: General readers · AI governance · Policy
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