Artificial Intelligence and Public Relations: Catholic Church in Perspective

In the knowledge economy and problem solving enterprise of the 21st century, Artificial Intelligence
(AI) is gradually being embraced and becoming a valuable tool in the minds and hands of different
institutions either as a nation, an organisation/company or even as an individual, as the AI skills are
being integrated in public relations and development of the human society. The religious
institutions and bodies are not left out in the uses and benefits of AI in their various activities
relating to different publics. The Catholic Church identifies and relates with her publics - the
innovators and end users. The letter of Pope Francis, written to celebrate the 2024 World
Communication Day, formed the working document for this paper as it was surveyed and some
interpretative commentary given. It highlighted the genuine fears and concerns of the evils and
disadvantages of AI to the human person and its relations as they point to social isolation, cognitive
pollution, creating group-thinking among other issues. The paper also adopted the survey
researches done by Gartner Incorporated and Oluwadiya et al. (2023). The findings revealed and
corroborated the position of the Catholic Church that AI without ethics gradually diminishes
humanity (human intelligence and communication). Thus, the development and usage of AI should
be with the wisdom of the heart and geared towards a fully human communication.

Keywords: Artificial Intelligence, Institution, Public relations, Catholic Church, Human
communication