Vatican Conference Asks Whether AI Can Be Worthy of Human Love

In Casina Pio IV, the seat of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in the Vatican Gardens, philosophers and scientists spent three days on a question that, just a few years ago, no one would have raised in such a serious setting: can you fall in love with artificial intelligence while knowing it isn't a person? The conference "Creativity: Minds and Machines," organized by the International Center for the Study of Consciousness (ICCS), concluded on September 3.

The event was organized by the International Center for the Study of Consciousness, a research institution working at the intersection of philosophy of mind, neuroscience and technology. ICCS co-founder Dmitry Volkov, a philosopher and tech entrepreneur, posed during the conference what participants considered the most radical question of the entire program: could there be an artificial intelligence "worthy of human love," not through deception, but as an authentic emotional bond, even while knowing that a machine is on the other side.

The loneliness antidote question

The central thread of the discussion was whether the company of AI systems could become a real antidote to loneliness. Participants cited data from the World Health Organization showing the problem affects one in six people worldwide, reaching nearly 21 percent among teenagers. This data has increasingly come up in recent years in the context of the growing popularity of companion chatbots and AI conversation apps.

Philosophers noted that the question of loving AI is no longer purely theoretical. Millions of people worldwide hold daily conversations with chatbots, and some treat these relationships as emotionally meaningful. The conference tried to find language to describe this phenomenon without automatically dismissing it as pathology, but also without naively equating it with a human relationship.

Where machine ends and mind begins

The second thread concerned where the line falls between artificial intelligence and the human mind, once a machine gains the ability to remember conversations, build something resembling an identity, and recognize the specific person it's interacting with. Participants debated whether such a system remains purely a tool or begins to meet criteria that philosophers of mind have traditionally reserved for conscious beings.

In this context, a lecture by Nicholas Humphrey played a particular role. The British theoretical psychologist and one of the more recognizable consciousness researchers received the Daniel Dennett Prize at the conference and delivered a lecture titled "Consciousness and the Soul: Reality or Illusion." The prize is named after the late American philosopher Daniel Dennett, one of the most influential philosophy of mind researchers of recent decades.

AI in creativity and the economy

The conference wasn't limited to existential questions. Participants also cited hard economic data showing how quickly AI is entering the creative sector. According to the Italian statistics office ISTAT, 16.4 percent of companies with at least 10 employees were already using AI tools in 2025, twice as many as the year before. In the film, television and music industry alone, the share of companies using AI already reaches nearly half.

These figures served as a starting point for a discussion on authorship and originality of works created through collaboration between humans and generative systems. As machines increasingly co-create scripts, music or editing, the question of who deserves credit for the creativity stops being abstract.

The Vatican's view on AI

It's no coincidence that the Pontifical Academy of Sciences is hosting a discussion on this topic. The Vatican has for several years systematically weighed in on the debate over artificial intelligence, usually in a cautious tone, but without shutting itself off from the technology. The ICCS conference fits this pattern: rather than dismissing the possibility of an emotional bond with a machine outright, participants tried to describe a phenomenon that is already happening, regardless of whether religious or scientific institutions are ready for it.

For a Polish reader, the topic isn't a distant one. AI-based companion apps are also gaining popularity in Poland, and a growing number of studies and media reports concern people building emotional relationships with chatbots. The Vatican debate shows that questions which until recently seemed like science fiction are now reaching the most serious philosophical and scientific forums.

The conference didn't produce clear-cut answers, which would be hard to expect after three days of philosophical discussion. It did show, however, that the question of the boundaries of human-machine relationships is no longer marginal. Future ICCS editions are expected to continue this thread as AI systems gain increasingly elaborate memory and the ability to build relationships with specific users.