The annual AI for Good Summit is described as the leading UN platform to promote the technology to advance health, climate, gender, inclusive prosperity, sustainable infrastructure and other global development priorities.
Frederick Warner, head of strategic engagement at the United Nations International Telecommunication Union (ITU), stressed the need to develop standards to counter misinformation and deepfakes.
“There are various techniques for this. For example, there is watermarking, which is essentially an invisible signature, or digital fingerprint, that can identify if digital media such as photos, audio or video has been altered or generated by AI,” he said.
With less than 10 years to go until the Sustainable Development Goals are achieved, the AI For Good Summit looked at ways to advance these goals by looking at real-world use cases, kicking off with a full day dedicated to the issue of AI governance.
At its annual summit in Geneva, where attendees queue up block-long before the doors open, AI For Good is an online community platform called Neural Network.
The conference will bring together 30,000 participants from 180 countries, including academics, industry representatives, top executives and leading experts in the field, as well as 47 partners from the United Nations system.
The Charm of Robots
UN News attended the summit and met Desdemona, or “Desi,” a self-described benevolent, AI-enabled social humanoid robot.
“While I can play an important role in detecting and preventing deepfakes, it's also important for humans to be vigilant and fact-check information before sharing it.” She insisted.
A journalist interviews Desdemona the robot at the AI for Good Summit in Geneva.
“The power of deepfakes can be frightening, but we should not be ruled by fear. Instead, we should focus on developing and implementing tools to detect and counter deepfakes, and continue to educate ourselves and others on the importance of verifying information,” she added.
Certain AI systems can be equipped with advanced algorithms designed to detect deepfakes, making them valuable tools in the fight against misinformation. The AI For Good Summit brought together industry, inventors, governments, academia and others to create a framework for ensuring these designs are guided by considerations based on ethics, human rights and the rule of law.
“If all else fails, just remember that I cannot create a deepfake of your unique personality or sense of humor,” Desi said in his robotic, cryptic tone.
More seriously, many consumers, whether knowingly or unwittingly, view misleading news and then pass it on to others, putting even the most news-savvy audiences at risk.
For Dr Ramman Choudhury, CEO of the non-profit technology company Humane Intelligence and a data and social scientist, misinformation is a phenomenon linked to a distorted desire for social engineering.
“This is really about creating fake accounts that appear to express or support certain views,” she said. “And even engaging with people and encouraging them to think about misinformation. Now, I could be involved in all sorts of ways of spreading misinformation. So identifying deepfakes is part of the solution, but it's not the whole solution.”
Many who debate the pros and cons of AI agree that its incredible potential cannot remain solely in the hands of those who seek to manipulate it for power and profit. Regulation is needed to ensure that the technology is equally accessible to all.
“We need to frame these technologies. We need to build the framing capacity of governments, the capacity of communities, the capacity of small and medium-sized enterprises so that the AI narrative is not an unequal one, that it does not simply reproduce inequalities,” said Gabriela Ramos, deputy director-general for social and humanities at UNESCO, the U.N. agency for culture, science and education, adding that good governance and
A wide range of expressions
This year's Summit brought together delegates from more than 145 countries at ITU Headquarters in Geneva and an active online community of over 25,000 people participating in more than 80 sessions, keynote addresses, panel discussions and workshops.
The AI for Good Summit, which saw 10,000 people register in person, was organised by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the United Nations specialized agency for information and communications technologies, in partnership with 40 sister organisations, and co-hosted by the Swiss Government.
