Pope Francis has become the first pontiff to address the G7, raising the promise and perils of artificial intelligence (AI) before the leaders of the world’s leading industrialised nations.

Francis addressed the group and other invited countries at their annual summit in southern Italy.

When he arrived, the room, which had been boisterous with delegations, went quiet as he greeted each of the G7 members and the expanded guest list.

Francis intended to use the occasion to join the chorus of countries and global bodies pushing for stronger safeguards on AI following the boom in generative artificial intelligence kickstarted by OpenAI’s ChatGPT.