Cisco Chair and CEO Chuck Robbins signed the Vatican-promoted Rome Call for AI Ethics on April 24, 2024. Microsoft and IBM had signed the initiative when it launched in 2020, so Cisco joined an existing pledge rather than founding it. The signature records a commitment to shared AI principles; it does not, by itself, demonstrate how those principles have been implemented across a company’s products or decisions.
What Cisco signed and when
Robbins signed the Rome Call at a Vatican ceremony after an audience with Pope Francis. The Vatican described the Call as promoted by the Pontifical Academy for Life and its RenAIssance Foundation. When the initiative began on February 28, 2020, its initial signatories were the Pontifical Academy for Life, Microsoft, IBM, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the Italian Government. Cisco’s 2024 signing made it a later participant.
Cisco’s April 24, 2024 announcement and Vatican News’ account of the signing describe the event and its stated rationale.
What the Rome Call asks of participants
The Call frames AI development as a shared responsibility for organizations, governments, institutions, and private-sector participants. Its stated aim is to ensure technological progress respects human dignity and enables people to benefit from advances in technology. The Vatican identified ethics, education, and rights as areas of Cisco’s commitment.
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Cisco’s description of the principles associated with the Call lists:
- Transparency: making AI development understandable and open to scrutiny.
- Inclusion: developing AI with attention to who can participate and benefit.
- Responsibility: accepting accountability for AI development and use.
- Impartiality: guarding against unfair treatment.
- Reliability: building systems that perform dependably.
- Security: protecting AI systems and the infrastructure around them.
- Privacy: respecting and safeguarding personal information.
Cisco’s announcement presents these principles as a basis for transparent, accountable, socially beneficial AI development. They are stated commitments, not evidence on their own that a particular system meets each principle.
Why Cisco’s participation was welcomed
Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life and the RenAIssance Foundation, welcomed Cisco as a technology partner with expertise in infrastructure, security, and protection of AI data and systems. Robbins said the principles aligned with Cisco’s belief that technology should be built on trust to support an inclusive future. Both comments explain the participants’ stated rationale; neither establishes a measured outcome from the pledge.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What the signature does—and does not—show
The signing establishes Cisco’s formal association with the Rome Call as of April 24, 2024. The cited announcements do not show that Cisco or any other signatory has fully implemented the principles across every product or business decision, nor do they independently measure the pledge’s impact.
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In July 2024, the Vatican reported that leaders of multiple religions signed onto the Call at a gathering in Hiroshima, with Microsoft, IBM, and Cisco representatives also present. That later event shows further activity around the initiative, but it does not establish its complete or current membership in 2026.
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