Artificial intelligence (AI) offers both remarkable promise and profound challenges. Walter Kim, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, recently participated in the Rome Summit on AI Ethics, hosted at the Vatican. The gathering brought together religious leaders to endorse the Rome Call for AI Ethics — a declaration outlining shared principles to guide the development of AI.  

“The rapid advance of this technology is outstripping our ethical considerations. As faith leaders, academics, AI experts and ethicists, we call for principled frameworks that develop AI to reflect foundational values about human flourishing. The distinct moral and theological vision of faith communities is vital in this moment,” Kim said. 

At the summit, participants signed the Rome Call for AI Ethics, which outlines five key principles for ethical AI: accuracy, transparency, privacy, security and human dignity/common good.

The declaration also calls for independent evaluation of AI systems, requirements for AI to cite sources and limitations, protections for children and other vulnerable people, safeguards against AI replacing human relationships and spiritual authorities. 

For the NAE, this engagement builds on our long-standing commitment to bring biblical ethics into the public square. As new technologies emerge, we want to help Christians think deeply about how they’re formed by them — and how they can use them faithfully, with wisdom and compassion.

We are also grateful for the opportunity to represent evangelical perspectives in global discussions on technology. We affirm that the dignity and identity of human beings — created in the image of God — must remain at the heart of technological innovation. We are emotional, spiritual and relational beings with divine purposes and parameters by which we will flourish. 

Read the Statement

Read the AI edition of the NAE magazine Arrow

Listen to our conversation with Max Tegmark on AI at the Crossroads Arrow