A United Nations report published today proposes that an international body oversee the first truly global initiative to monitor and govern AI.
Report prepared by the Secretary General of the United Nations High-Level Advisory Body on Artificial IntelligenceRecommends the establishment of a body similar to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change tasked with collecting up-to-date information on artificial intelligence and its risks.
The report calls for a recent policy dialogue on AI so that the 193 UN members can discuss risks and agree on actions. It also recommends that the UN take steps to enable poorer nations, especially those in the global South, to benefit from AI and contribute to its governance. This should include, it says, setting up an AI fund to support projects in these countries, establishing AI standards and data-sharing systems, and creating resources such as training to support nations govern AI. Some of the report’s recommendations could be facilitated by Global Digital Compactexisting plan to address the digital and data divide between nations. Finally, it suggests establishing an AI office at the UN to coordinate existing efforts at the UN to achieve the report’s goals.
“We have an international community that agrees that artificial intelligence brings both harm and threats, but also opportunities,” he says. Alondra Nelsonprofessor at Institute of Advanced Studies who served on the UN advisory body on the recommendation of the White House and the State Department.
The extraordinary abilities demonstrated by vast language models and chatbots in recent years have raised hopes for a revolution in economic productivity, but they have also led some experts to warn that AI may be advancing too quickly and could soon become tough to control. Shortly after ChatGPT emerged, a number of scientists and entrepreneurs signed a letter calling for a six-month pause in the technology’s development so that risks could be assessed.
More pressing concerns include AI’s potential to automate disinformation, generate deepfake video and audio, replace workers en masse, and deepen algorithmic societal bias on an industrial scale. “There’s a sense of urgency, and people feel like we need to work together,” Nelson says.
The UN proposals reflect a powerful interest among policymakers around the world in regulating AI to mitigate these risks. But they also come as major powers — notably the United States and China — vie for leadership in a technology that promises enormous economic, scientific and military benefits, and as those nations lay out their own visions for how it should be used and controlled.
In March, the United States presented a resolution to the UN, calling on member states to embrace the development of “safe, secure and trustworthy artificial intelligence.” In July, China introduced own solution which emphasized cooperation in developing AI and making the technology widely available. All UN member states signed both agreements.
“AI is part of the competition between the US and China, so there are only so many things they can agree on,” he says. Joshua Meltzerexpert at the Brookings Institute, a Washington think tank. In his opinion, the key differences include the norms and values that artificial intelligence should embody, and the protection of privacy and personal data.