Pope warns of AI dangers, urges fair wages for migrants on Singapore visit

Francis meets local officials and dignitaries in affluent city-state at the end of his Asia Pacific tour.

Pope Francis, on a visit to Singapore, has warned of the negative effects of artificial intelligence (AI) on society and called for “fair” wages for migrant workers.

The comments by the head of the Catholic Church came on Thursday as the high-tech city-state became his final stop on a 12-day Asia Pacific tour.

Technology developments risk isolating individuals and putting them into a false reality, Francis said, adding that AI should be used to bring people closer together and to promote understanding and solidarity within society.

He also cautioned that AI should not make people forget about what is important: human relationships.

This is not the first time the 87-year-old pontiff has weighed in on AI. In June, he called for a ban on “lethal autonomous weapons” during an address to the leaders of the Group of Seven top industrial democracies at the bloc’s summit held in Italy.

In affluent Singapore, Francis also made a plea for foreign labourers to be paid fairly, saying “special attention” should be paid to “protecting the dignity of migrant workers”.

“These workers contribute a great deal to society and should be guaranteed a fair wage,” he said in an address to local political leaders and dignitaries.

Cheap labour has been instrumental in the rapid growth of gleaming metropolises such as Singapore.

According to government data from December 2023, there were 1.1 million foreigners on work permits in Singapore earning less than 3,000 Singaporean dollars ($2,300) per month.

The figure included 286,300 domestic workers and 441,100 workers in the construction, shipyard and manufacturing sectors. Most of them hail from Bangladesh, China, India, Malaysia and the Philippines.

Advocates say they lack adequate protection against exploitation and sometimes endure poor living conditions, charges the government denies.

A Singapore NGO which provides services for migrant workers, the Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics, welcomed the pope’s remarks, saying they were in “full agreement” with his call for fair wages.

According to the International Labour Organization, there are an estimated 170 million migrant workers around the world – about 5 percent of the global workforce.

Singapore is the last stop on the pope’s whirlwind tour, which saw him visit Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and East Timor. In East Timor, he held a mass for 600,000 faithful – almost half the nation’s population.

According to the Vatican, out of the nearly six million residents of Singapore, some 176,000 are Catholic.

A large mass at Singapore’s National Stadium was expected to attract about 55,000 people on Thursday afternoon.

Reporting from outside the venue, Al Jazeera’s Patrick Fok said Catholics in Singapore were “simply excited and elated” to be receiving the pope.

He added that people from across the region had travelled to the city-state for the occasion, including from Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines.

Francis flies back to Rome on Friday.