The head of the UN called on Monday the international community to unite to establish “thoughtful and organized” global governance of artificial intelligence so as not to improvise “the future of humanity” in the face of these technologies.
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“The choice before us is (…) not between blind trust in AI and fear of it. It is between thought-out and organized governance, or a drift left to chance,” said Antonio Guterres in a speech at the opening of the first Global Dialogue on AI Governance in Geneva.
This new intergovernmental forum coordinated by the United Nations aims to enable all Member States and civil society to coordinate the supervision of the development and use of AI.
The UN boss warned that these systems, now capable of writing code, acting online and making decisions with less and less human supervision, are evolving “at breakneck speed”, faster than the institutions responsible for controlling them.
“Our institutions were designed to supervise machines that execute orders. They are not ready to govern machines that make decisions. And certain limits, once crossed, cannot be restored,” he explained.
“Vibe-coding” (creation of computer code by uninitiated people, editor’s note) can work wonders, but we cannot “vibe-code” the truth. We cannot “vibe-code” the future of humanity,” he insisted.
According to him, three major risks present themselves today: the speed of development of AI, the concentration of capabilities in the hands of a small number of companies and countries, and the threat that AI-generated content represents to the integrity of information and trust in facts.
“The question is whether we are going to shape this transformation together, or let it shape us,” he asked to representatives of governments, actors from the private sector or academic circles gathered for two days in Geneva.
« AI Fracture »
While welcoming the potential of these technologies to accelerate development, improve health care or access to education, Mr. Guterres called for governance based on four priorities: security, respect for human rights and strengthening the capacities of developing countries and transparency.
In particular, he proposed to soon submit to States a Commitment for the safety of children in the face of artificial intelligence, aimed at imposing safety tests before any deployment of an AI accessible to children, prohibiting the generation of sexual images of children by these systems and guaranteeing that a child in distress is referred to human help.
“Children are being deceived by machines pretending to be friends (…) No child should be used as a guinea pig for unregulated AI,” insisted Mr. Guterres.
The UN Secretary-General also announced that he would soon submit recommendations to the General Assembly for a Global AI Fund aimed at strengthening the capacities of developing countries.
“We cannot let the digital divide turn into an artificial intelligence divide,” he insisted.
“This Global Dialogue is not simply about regulating a technology. It is about defining a common vision in which technological progress goes hand in hand with human dignity, equity and sustainable development,” said the President of the UN General Assembly Annalena Baerbock.
“Morally repugnant”
Echoing his June 23 speech at London Climate Action Week, Mr. Guterres also called on major companies in the sector to publish the full environmental footprint of their systems and to power all their data centers with renewable energy by 2030.
He also insisted on the peril of the military use of AI, in particular the use of lethal autonomous weapons systems.
“Machines that select their target, attack them and take life without human control or judgment is morally repugnant. This is politically unacceptable. And this must be prohibited by international law,” he added, urging states to act.
According to him, the world is probably home to “the last generation capable of defining the conditions of coexistence between humanity and machines”. Governments, businesses and scientists must act quickly to make AI “safer, fairer, more accessible and more ethical”.
Held Monday and Tuesday, the Global Dialogue on AI Governance will be followed in Geneva by the “AI for Good” summit dedicated to the applications of artificial intelligence for development.
