Cisco CEO and Chair Chuck Robbins signed the Vatican-promoted Rome Call for AI Ethics on April 24, 2024, joining an initiative that Microsoft and IBM had signed at its launch in 2020. The pledge sets out principles for responsible AI; the signing records a commitment, not proof that those principles have been implemented across each company’s products or decisions.
What happened when Cisco signed the Rome Call?
At a Vatican ceremony on April 24, 2024, Robbins signed the Rome Call following an audience with Pope Francis. The Vatican described the Call as an initiative promoted by the Pontifical Academy for Life and its RenAIssance Foundation. The Vatican’s account of the event is available in its April 24, 2024 announcement; Cisco also published a company announcement.
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Cisco joined an existing pledge rather than founding it. The Rome Call began on February 28, 2020, with the Pontifical Academy for Life, Microsoft, IBM, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, and the Italian Government as initial signatories, according to the Vatican’s original announcement. Microsoft and IBM therefore preceded Cisco’s 2024 signature.
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What does the Rome Call ask signatories to do?
The Call urges organizations, governments, institutions, and private-sector participants to share responsibility for AI development. Its stated aim is for technological progress to respect human dignity and enable people to benefit from advances in technology. The Vatican’s account of Cisco’s signing highlights ethics, education, and rights as areas of commitment.
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Cisco lists seven principles associated with the Call: transparency, inclusion, responsibility, impartiality, reliability, security, and privacy. Cisco says the effort is intended to make AI development transparent and accountable and to benefit society; these are statements of purpose, not measured outcomes.
Why did Cisco join?
Robbins said the principles align with Cisco’s belief that technology should be built on trust to support an inclusive future. 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. Both remarks explain the signatories’ stated rationale; neither establishes that the pledge has produced particular results.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What does the signature establish—and what does it not?
The signature establishes that Cisco formally joined the Rome Call on April 24, 2024. The event and public statements document an institutional commitment to the initiative’s principles. They do not, by themselves, show how consistently Cisco—or any other signatory—has applied those principles in particular AI systems, products, or business decisions. The cited event material does not independently measure the pledge’s impact.
In July 2024, the Vatican reported a Hiroshima gathering where leaders of multiple religions signed onto the Call and representatives of Microsoft, IBM, and Cisco were present. That dated Vatican report provides later context, but it does not establish the initiative’s complete membership or any changes since then.
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