In a time of increasing popularity for artificial intelligence (AI), the United Nations has warned that market forces should not be the sole determining factor as the technology becomes more widely used. United Nations experts called for creating tools for global cooperation as the technology becomes increasingly popular and raises concerns about its misuse.
A high-level United Nations body that advises the government said Thursday that developing a global framework for artificial intelligence is an "imperative". In a statement released by The World Bank last week, the bank called on the United Nations to establish the first comprehensive global organizations to regulate the fast-growing technology market.
An analysis published by the group in a 100-page report on AI concluded that the technology "is changing our world," holding an abundance of incredible potential for good, such as opening new fields of science and accelerating economic growth as well as improving public health and agriculture, as well as optimizing energy systems.
A report by the World Economic Forum stated that if AI is left unregulated, it would provide benefits only to a small number of countries, companies, and individuals, while it warned that even more powerful systems than those in existence today "could upend the world of work," develop autonomous weapons, and threaten peace and stability worldwide.
There are approximately 40 experts from the fields of technology, law, and data protection on the panel, which was established by United Nations High Representative Antonio Guterres in October last year as part of his Global Agenda Council.
There is a need to raise awareness about the lack of global governance of artificial intelligence such as the exclusion of developing countries from discussions concerning AI's future and its regulatory framework within the context of high-profile "Summit of the Future" events.
Only seven of the U.N.'s 193 members belong to one of the seven major AI initiatives, while 118 others are absent from all of them -- mostly countries from the South of the globe.
Recent years have seen impressive achievements in the areas of large language models and chatbots, and this has sparked high hopes for a revolution in economic productivity, but some experts have also warned that AI technology may be developing too rapidly, which may lead to problems in creating control over it in the future.
In less than a month after ChatGPT appeared, several scientists and entrepreneurs came together and signed a letter asking for a temporary pause of the technology's development for six months to assess the risks associated with it.
Among the more immediate concerns, there are the ones relating to disinformation automated through artificial intelligence, the generation of deepfake audio and video, the mass replacement of workers, and the worsening of societal algorithmic bias on an industrial scale.
As Nelson says, "There is a sense of urgency about the situation, and people feel that we need to come together to find a solution.".
The UN proposals reflect a strong commitment by government officials worldwide to regulate AI to minimize these risks to the environment. This research comes at a time when the world's major powers, including the United States and China, are frantically competing to lead the way in the development and use of technology that offers enormous economic, scientific, and military benefits, and as these countries stake out their visions for how they should be used and managed.
As a result, differences are already beginning to appear between the sexes. It is important to remember that whole parts of the world have been left out of international discussions regarding AI governance; that is the lack of representation.
It should be pointed out that seven countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, and the United States) are parties to seven prominent non-UN initiatives on artificial intelligence, whereas only 118 countries, predominantly in the Global South, are parties to none of these initiatives.
"The risks caused by artificial intelligence might become more severe and might become more concentrated, leading to Member States considering the need for a more robust international institution that has authority over monitoring, reporting, verification, and enforcement.
Because of the remarkable speed with which AI is advancing, the authors accept that it would be useless to compose a detailed list of the dangers, that AI poses, to demonstrate the impact of AI on society.
However, they focused on the dangers posed by disinformation, deep fakes, particularly pornographic deep fakes, as well as the continued development of autonomous weapons and the use of artificial intelligence (AI) by terrorist and criminal groups.
A more immediate response, given the speed, autonomy, and opacity of artificial intelligence systems, may not prove to be feasible if people wait for a threat to emerge before finding out what is happening, according to the report.
Continual assessments and policy dialogue will help to ensure that the world will not be surprised by the events of the future.
As the authors acknowledge, owing to the breakneck speed of change in the field of artificial intelligence, it would not be possible to put together a comprehensive list of the potential dangers associated with the fast-evolving technology no matter how hard they tried.
There were 3 key points they emphasized in their report: the threat of disinformation for democracy, the rise of more realistic deep fakes - especially those associated with pornography - as well as the evolution of autonomous weapons and the use of AI for criminals and terrorists.
