VATICAN CITY: Pope Leo XIV Thursday hailed the work of news agencies as a bulwark in an increasingly "post-truth" world, and warned of the dangers of relying on artificial intelligence for information.

"The world needs free, rigorous and objective information," he told an audience at the Vatican of the MINDS International network of news agencies, which includes AFP.

"With your patient and rigorous work, you can act as a barrier against those who, through the ancient art of lying, seek to create divisions in order to rule by dividing," he added.

‘Bulwark of civility’

"You can also be a bulwark of civility against the quicksand of approximation and post-truth."

Careful, ethically-driven reporting was "an antidote to the proliferation of 'junk' information," he said.

Leo noted the crisis facing news and media agencies, which have seen their traditional model of selling advertising to fund their work decimated since the advent of the internet, and AI chatbots now dramatically reducing the number of people accessing their websites.

"Artificial intelligence is changing the way we receive information and communicate, but who directs it and for what purposes?" the pope asked.

‘We must be vigilant’

"We must be vigilant in order to ensure that technology does not replace human beings, and that the information and algorithms that govern it today are not in the hands of a few."

Leo, the first US head of the Catholic Church, has himself been a victim of "deep fake" videos online, which show him appearing to make speeches pieced together using AI.

He had previously called for journalists jailed around the world to be released, and repeated Thursday that their work "can never be considered a crime".

Leo also paid tribute to the journalists killed while working, calling them "victims of war and of the ideology of war, which seeks to prevent journalists from being there at all".

‘We must not forget them’

"We must not forget them! If today we know what is happening in Gaza, Ukraine, and every other land bloodied by bombs, we largely owe it to them," he said.

Pope Leo urged citizens to "value and support professionals and agencies that demonstrate seriousness and true freedom in their work".

"Free access to information is a pillar that upholds the edifice of our societies, and for this reason, we are called to defend and guarantee it," he said.

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Pope hails role of news agencies in 'post-truth', AI world