UN will create scientific council and a global plan on artificial intelligence

The almost 40 members of the Advisory Body on artificial intelligence (AI) created by United Nations They are already working to get a “scientific advice to give recommendations on this technologyand they hope that a “implementation plan” international.

This council of wise men, made up of experts from the public and private sectors, is subdivided into three pillars that will discuss the international governance of this technology, the risks and challenges of AI, and the opportunities to take advantage of the technology.

The 20 women and 19 men, from 33 countries, do not have time on their side: first, it is a technology that does not stop advancing, and second, they have very little time to issue a report.

This December they will issue a first “draft” and within the framework of the Future Summit next September they will present their recommendations.

However, Carme Artigas, Secretary of State for Digitalization and AI of Spain and co-president of this Advisory Body, indicated that, as it is not a document with ato “theoretical load” that has to be demonstrated, it is feasible to deliver the final document on time.

“We are very interested in this not being a recommendation paper, but rather that with the help of this report of September 24th we can also draw up an implementation plan,” emphasizes Artigas, who co-chairs the council along with Zimbabwean James Manyika, senior vice president of Google-Alphabet.

According to Artigas, the world would have to give “at most” a year to implement these mechanisms, because a time is coming when there is no need for so many new forums to debate this technology, and it is more about “align positions to work together.”

A very northern hemisphere AI

For now, the northern hemisphere is the one that leads the way in this technology.

The United States is the country that is home to many of the companies that lead this technology. In the case of generative AI, it was OpenAI that kicked things off with ChatGPT in November last year, and this year the giants Microsoft and Google have entered the race to dominate this market.

While Europe is the region most insistent on creating regulations, and other continents such as Africa or Latin America seem to be lagging behind.

The UN is now trying to ensure that this disparity is not reflected in its council of wise men by selecting experts from more than thirty countries.

For Argentine María Vanina Martínez Posse, an AI researcher at the Institute of Artificial Research in Spain, this is key, since one of the risks of AI is “technological dependence” that you can create for Latin American countries.

Martínez Posse is part of the subgroup specialized in the risks and challenges of this technology, although he will also help in the opportunities to take advantage of AI to accelerate compliance with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

From science fiction to reality

For her part, Jimena Sofía Viveros Álvarez, chief of staff and principal legal advisor to Judge Loretta Ortiz at the Supreme Court of Justice of Mexico, will use her specialization in autonomous weapons to participate in the challenges subgroup and will also participate in the international AI governance subgroup.

The lawyer also points out that in the last two years people have gone from seeing the issue of weapons and robots as something from science fiction to a topic “more present than future.”

“What we have seen in the last year is that it is imminent and exponential, and we cannot postpone this conversation about international regulation (of weapons in relation to AI) because technology is already eating us up,” Add.

For Viveros, the greatest risk is to human life, physical integrity and human rights.

“We must start the conversation at the starting point of which decisions we can delegate to artificial intelligence systems and which ones we cannot, for example, whether to take a human life or not. We are in a context of many humanitarian crises and proliferation of armed conflicts and I think it is important to ask ourselves what the next step is in the arms industry,” cthe expert included.