United Nations urges to create standards that guarantee safe and reliable AI systems

NY. Faced with the explosion of artificial intelligence (AI), which arouses both enthusiasm and concern, the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) yesterday asked to create standards international organizations, in the first resolution to be adopted on this delicate matter.

The text, prepared by the United States and co-sponsored by a hundred countries, was adopted by consensus after several months of negotiations.

The resolution, which excludes military AI, highlights the need to determine standards that ensure that artificial intelligence systems are safe and reliable.

The aspiration is promote, rather than hinder, digital transformation and equitable access to the benefits of these systemsin order to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals, which aim to guarantee a better future for humanity between now and 2030.

It is a historic step towards establishing clear international standards for AI and promoting safe and reliable AI systems.said Kamala Harris, vice president of the United States.

It must be adopted and developed in a way that protects everyone from harm and ensures that everyone can enjoy its benefitssaid the vice president in a statement, in which she asked to address from catastrophic risks to humanity to harm suffered by individuals and communities, such as prejudice.

The appearance at the end of 2022 of ChatGPT, from the Californian company OpenAI, capable of writing dissertations, poems or making translations in seconds, gives attempts to regulate AI a new dimension.

This system revealed the enormous potential of artificial intelligence, but also exposed its risks for democracy, in a year in which half of the world will elect its leaders, or due to the dissemination of false photographs or videos that can manipulate public opinion. and ruin people’s lives.

For this reason, the text recognizes that, without safeguardssuch technology risks undermining human rights, reinforcing prejudice and discrimination, as well as jeopardizing the protection of personal data.

In this regard, calls on all member states and other interested parties to refrain or stop using artificial intelligence systems that cannot be used respecting human rights or that present excessive risks for the exercise of human rights.

The resolution focuses primarily on the potential benefits of AI for development, and claims to be committed to reducing the digital divide between and within countries.

For the Moroccan ambassador, Omar Hilale, it is a springboard for existing and future multilateral initiatives on digital cooperation although It is not an end in itself, but the beginning of our collective journey for sustainable development that leaves no one behind..

Antonio Guterres, Secretary General of the UN, who has made the regulation of AI one of his priorities, calls for the creation of an entity of the organization that follows the model of the International Atomic Energy Agency to regulate this stormy terrain.

After highlighting the threats posed by misinformation and prejudice, last week he warned of the biases of technologies designed mainly by men and that they ignore the needs and rights of women.

Male-dominated algorithms could literally program inequality into activities like urban planning, credit scoring, or medical imaging, for yearshe warned.

On March 13, the European Parliament passed the world’s first law to regulate the use of AI in the European Union.