The control of artificial intelligence, a crucial issue on the table of the Italian G7

The wonders and risks of artificial intelligence (IA) will return this year to the leaders’ summit of the G7the seven richest democracies in the world, whose leaders have met since Thursday in the Italian region of Apulia (southern) to analyze their future regulation, among other geopolitical issues.

The Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, current president, announced that the meeting of heads of State or Government of the Group – Germany, Canada, the United States, France, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom – would dedicate a session to this technology, the next Friday.

The summit will thus continue the “Hiroshima Process” that began last year in the Japanese city and with which the G7 approved a “voluntary” code of conduct for institutions and companies that use this type of tools, in an attempt to mitigate risks. such as misinformation or violation of privacy.

This year the issue of AI will have the point of view of personalities such as the Pope Franciscowhich closely follows the advent of this tool, even dedicating its message to it for this year’s World Day of Peace.

In fact, the Vatican established the “Rome call for IA ethics” initiative in 2020 to promote the application of “algoretics”, that is, an ethical dimension to these prodigious algorithms.

The idea is to agree on certain standards between democratic powers on AI and Italian G7 sources express their “confidence” that “something sensible” will finally be reflected in the final declaration.

The leaders, they point out, will debate how to give this technology an “anthropocentric” vision and use, its eventual future in the labor market and the possibilities of taking it to developing countries.

But what most worries the heads of the seven most powerful democracies in the world, who will meet in an isolated hotel complex near the city of Bari (southern), is the misinformation that the AI It can generate.

This, the dissemination of altered or false images or sounds, could confuse the electorate and undermine the pillars of democratic countries, an issue especially felt in a “super-electoral” 2024, in which almost half of the world’s population is called to the elections. urns.

For this reason, the Italian Undersecretary for Information, Alberto Barachini, explains to EFE that the intention is to put this issue at the center of the geopolitical debate for the first time.

Meloni thus hopes that the great leaders of the G7 “join forces” to advance in the regularization of AI and, in this way, negotiate its extension with other powers such as China, for example.

Barachini, a journalist who jumped to the conservative Forza Italia recruited by its historic founder Silvio Berlusconi, remembers an occasion when, speaking to an Indian engineer at the United Nations about AI, he told him that “the current rules are fine.” The Italian politician responded: “Of course, I understand you, because there isn’t one.”

“European regulations are very good, they protect our world, but we must also reason with China, Japan, Korea or the United States, with all non-European countries, because one of the main risks today is Russian disinformation”he pointed out.

For this reason, he alleged, “if we do not put a unity of vision on the table of the big ones, any regulation will end up colliding with the non-regulation of other countries.”

“If we manage to join forces also within the G7 “It would surely be an important instrument of pressure,” held.

Barachini believes that improper use of AI can unbalance – even more so – the international concert, but also have serious consequences on the labor market or on the trust of democracies, undermined by suspicion.

At the national level, the Italian Parliament has been processing a bill on AI since April based on three principles: the defense of copyright, the identification of content generated by this technology and a toughening of sanctions against ‘Deepfake’, Very realistic images created by computer.