Humanity is in a “race against time” when it comes to AI: UN May 31, 2024

Conference participants heard how advances in AI are accelerating efforts to solve some of the world's problems (Fabrice COFFRINI)

By AFP - Agence France Presse

Humanity is in a “race against time” when it comes to AI: UN

Humanity is in a race against time to harness the colossal emerging power of artificial intelligence for the good of all, while avoiding dire risks, a leading UN official said on Thursday.

“We've let the genie out of the bottle,” said Doreen Bogdan-Martin, head of the UN's International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

“We are in a race against time,” she said at the opening of a two-day Global Summit on AI for Good in Geneva.

“Recent developments in AI have been nothing short of extraordinary.”

The thousands of people gathered at the conference heard how advances in generative AI are already accelerating efforts to solve some of the world's most pressing problems, such as climate change, hunger, and social welfare.

“I believe we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to direct AI to benefit all the people of the world,” Bogdan-Martin told AFP ahead of the summit.

But she lamented on Thursday that a third of humanity remains completely offline and is “excluded from the voiceless AI revolution”.

“This digital and technological divide is no longer acceptable.”

Bogdan-Martin stressed that AI has “immense potential for both good and evil”, emphasizing that it is vital to “make AI systems safe”.

- Concentrated power -

She said this was especially important as “2024 is the biggest election year in history”, with votes in dozens of countries, including the United States.

She highlighted the “rise of sophisticated deep disinformation campaigns” and warned that the “misuse of AI threatens democracy (and) also endangers the mental health of young people and compromises cyber security”.

Other experts at Thursday's conference agreed.

“We have to understand where we're going,” said Tristan Harris, a technology ethicist who co-founded the Center for Humane Technology.

He pointed to the lessons of social media - initially presented as a way to connect people and give everyone a voice, but which has also brought addiction, viral misinformation, online harassment, and growing mental health problems.

Harris warned that the incentive driving the companies that are launching the technology risks dramatically increasing these negative impacts.

“The main thing that's driving the behavior of Open AI or Google is the race to achieve market dominance,” he said.

In such a world, he said, “governance that moves at the speed of technology” is vital.

- Changing the social contract -

OpenAI boss Sam Altman, who came to global prominence after OpenAI launched ChatGPT in 2022, recognized the dangers.

Speaking via a video link, he told the meeting that “cyber security” was currently the biggest concern when it came to the negative impacts of technology.

Further on, he said that it would probably “require some change in the social contract, given the power that we expect this technology to have”.

“I don't think there will be no jobs... but I think the whole structure of society itself will be (open to) some degree of debate and reconfiguration.”

Overall, however, he insisted that from the perspective of how new technologies evolve historically, AI systems were “generally considered safe and robust”.

While he welcomed discussions about regulations to curb the short-term negative impacts of AI, he warned that it was “difficult” to suggest regulations aimed at controlling future impacts.

“We don't know how society and this technology will co-evolve,” he said.

Bogdan-Martin, for his part, praised the fact that governments and other entities have recently “rushed to establish protections” and regulations on the use of AI.

On Wednesday, the European Union announced the creation of an AI Office to regulate artificial intelligence under a comprehensive new law.

“It is our responsibility to write the next chapter in the great story of humanity and technology and make it safe, inclusive, and sustainable,” said Bogdan-Martin.

Nina LARSON

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