AFP
AI: humanity in a race against time, according to the UN
Humanity is in a race against time to learn how to harness artificial intelligence for the common good while avoiding the terrible risks it poses, a senior UN official and experts said Thursday. let the genie out of the bottle,” said Doreen Bogdan-Martin, director of the United Nations’ International Telecommunications Union (ITU). “We are in a race against time,” she said at the opening of a two-day global summit called “AI for Good” in Geneva. “Recent developments in AI are nothing short of extraordinary,” she acknowledged. Thousands of conference attendees learned that advances in generative AI are already accelerating efforts to solve some of the most pressing problems. most pressing issues on the planet, such as climate change, hunger and social assistance.”I think we have the opportunity, as happens once in a generation, to put AI at the service of all inhabitants of the planet,” said Ms. Bogdan-Martin in an email sent to AFP before the summit. But she deplored Thursday that a third of humanity still remains completely disconnected and is “excluded from the revolution of AI without being able to express itself. – Concentrated power – Ms Bogdan-Martin stressed that AI holds “immense potential, both for good and evil”, and that it is essential to “secure AI systems”. She said that this was particularly important today, given that “2024 is the biggest election year in history”, with votes in dozens of countries, including the United States. However, “with the rise sophisticated disinformation campaigns of the ‘deep fake’ type, it is also the most controversial year,” she added. “Not only does this misuse of AI threaten democracy, but it also endangers the mental health of young people and compromises cybersecurity,” warns this civil servant. In a speech given at another event dedicated to AI governance this week, the ITU chief warned that “the power of AI is concentrated in the hands of too few.” “It is risky and ethically fragile to be in this kind of position for humanity,” she said. Other experts at the conference agreed. “We need to understand where we are heading,” Tristan Harris said. , a technology ethicist who co-founded the Center for Humane Technology. He recalled the lessons learned from social media, which was initially presented as a way to connect people and give everyone a voice, but which also spawned addiction, viral misinformation , online bullying and the explosion of mental health problems among adolescents. – “Superpowers” – While AI can benefit humanity in many ways, Mr Harris warned that the motivations that drive companies to deploy the technology risked significantly increasing these negative effects. “The main motivation for Open AI or Google’s behavior is the race for market dominance,” he said. In such a world, a – he added, “governance that evolves at the speed of technology” is vital. OpenAI director Sam Altman, who rose to prominence worldwide after the release of ChatGPT in 2022, acknowledged that this technological advancement could carry dangers. Speaking via video link, he told the gathering that “cybersecurity” was currently the biggest concern regarding the potential negative effects of AI. However, in the longer term, he believed that it would probably be necessary to “modify the social contract, given the expected power of this technology.” Overall, however, he insisted that, from the perspective of the historical evolution of new technologies, systems of AI were “generally considered safe and robust.” While welcoming discussions on regulations aimed at stemming the short-term negative effects of AI, he cautioned that it was “difficult” to suggest regulations aimed at limiting its development. Azeem Azhar, founder of Exponential View, also highlighted the need for a much stronger institutional response “to ensure that AI gives people superpowers rather than being seen as a tool to replace them “.Ms Bogdan-Martin welcomed the fact that governments and other actors have recently “rushed to establish protections” and regulations regarding the use of AI. For example, the European Union announced Wednesday the creation of an AI office to regulate artificial intelligence under a new law. nl/rjmv/ial/lpt/mm/fjbn
