Free Republic

ROME — Pope Francis warned of the dangers of “Big Data” Wednesday, noting “algorithms are not neutral” and can be used to spread fake news and create groupthink. Artificial intelligence systems can “be a source of ‘cognitive pollution,’ a distortion of reality by partially or completely false narratives, believed and broadcast as if they were true,” the pontiff argues in his 2024 Message for the World Day of Social Communications. The digital revolution can imprison people “in models that nowadays are called ‘echo chambers,’” the pope states, and rather than increasing a “pluralism of information,” they create confusion.

Even the meanest of intellects can see that something like a Narrative™ exists. Sometimes we call it “the current thing.” Some call it the “hive mind.” The edgier on the internet refer to the “non-player characters” (NPCs), comparing the people apparently mindlessly parroting the accepted Narrative™ as if they are pre-programmed characters in a video game. As if they have no will of their own. It’s impossible not to notice, though. When certain issues come up, anybody deviating from a certain position is viciously attacked and “cancelled.” The enforcers come from a certain economic or social class (“The Elite™), and...