Important takeouts:
- The UN Security Council discusses the risks, benefits and responsible use of AI
- Leaders call for global governance, safeguards and compliance with international law
- New United Nations Agency: Global AI Forum and Independent Science Panel
- Concerns regarding AI militarization and digital inequality in developing regions
The rise of artificial intelligence took the central stage at a UN Security Council meeting on Wednesday, when world leaders and diplomats acknowledged the near-imasurable capabilities of AI, urging attention to potential harms with derived hands and risks involving military use of technology.
“The question is not whether AI will affect international peace and security, but how will it shape the impact it will be used responsibly,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said at the opening of his remarks at a meeting on Wednesday. “AIs can help to enhance prevention and protection, predict food insecurity and evacuation, support demining, and identify potential outbreaks of violence. But without guardrails, they can also be weaponized.”
This week's session at the annual high-level UN meetup exhibited a global perception of AI power, with leaders addressing possible benefits in fields such as medical research and international, and scales comparable to warnings about their ability to create and spread misinformation and other illnesses.
“Deep AI analysis of situational data holds this promise for peace,” said British Deputy Prime Minister David Lamy, who stated that AI's ability to maintain “ultra-advanced, real-time logistics, ultra-accurate real-time sentiment analysis, and ultra-ear warning systems.”
However, Ramy warned of “armed conflict challenges” such as “risk of miscalculation, risk of unintended escalation, and the arrival of artificial intelligence-driven chatbots causes conflict.”
AI is catapulted at the top of many conversations
Ever since AI Boom began with ChatGpt's debut about three years ago, the breathtaking ability of this technology has surprised the world. Technology companies have competed to develop better AI systems despite experts warning of the risks, such as engineered pandemics, large-scale misinformation, or existential threats such as uncontrolled, unauthorized AIS.
The adoption of the United Nations' new governance architecture is the latest and greatest effort to curb AI. Previous multilateral efforts, including three AI summits hosted by the UK, South Korea and France, have only brought about non-binding pledges.
Last month, the General Assembly adopted a resolution to establish two important institutions for AI (the Global Forum and the Science Panel of Independent Experts).
The discussion held on Wednesday centers around how Congress will ensure that responsible application of AI complies with international law and supports peace processes and conflict prevention.
Several, including Sierra Leone's Foreign Minister Timothy Hippo, stressed the need to lead the way in which Congress would not be used by the military without human supervision.
“The Council can encourage best practices in peace operations, promote safeguards to maintain human institutions for military use, and ensure compliance with international and international humanitarian law,” Kaba said.
Greek Prime Minister Kiriakos Mitotakis called on the council to “take this opportunity to stand up. We now have to rise to govern the age of AI, as we once stood up to deal with nuclear weapons and peacekeeping challenges.”
Another focus among some of the council members was in less developed regions like Africa, left in the AI revolution. Somali Hassan Sheikh Mohamd warned of “digital colonialism.” He said it could be addressed by partnering with the initiative “to ensure that AI is a tool for collective progress rather than a social aspect of the sector.”
“Of the 55 members of the African Union, only 10 states have adopted the necessary information technology regulations,” said Algerian Foreign Minister Ahmed Ataf.
Details about the UN AI
On Thursday, as part of Bod's annual meeting, Guterres will hold a meeting to launch a forum called the Global Dialogue on AI Governance.
This is a venue where the government and “stakeholders” discuss international cooperation and share ideas and solutions. They are scheduled to officially meet Geneva and in New York in 2027 next year.
Meanwhile, the recruitment is expected to be ongoing to find 40 experts in the science panel, including co-chairs in developed countries and two co-chairs in developing countries. The panel compares the United Nations Climate Change Panel and its flagship annual police meeting.
The new body represents a “symbolic victory.” Isabella Wilkinson, a researcher at Chatham House, a London-based think tank, wrote in a blog post that it is “the world's most globally comprehensive approach to managing AI.”
“But in reality, the new mechanisms seem almost helpless,” she added. One possible question is whether UN timber management can regulate rapidly moving technologies such as AI.
Ahead of the meeting, a group of influential experts asked the government to agree to the so-called red line of AI by the end of next year, saying technology needs a “minimum guardrail” designed to prevent “the most urgent and unacceptable risks.”
The group, including senior employees at ChatGpt Maker Openai, Google's AI Research Lab Deepmind, and Chatbot Maker Anthropic, want the government to sign internationally binding contracts on AI. They point out that the world has previously agreed to treaties that ban nuclear tests and biological weapons and protect the high seas.
