U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres unveiled Thursday a new advisory body dedicated to developing consensus around the risks posed by artificial intelligence and how international cooperation can help meet those challenges.
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00:00 Good morning. Today I am launching my high-level multi-stakeholder advisory body on artificial
00:07 intelligence. The last year has seen an extraordinary advance in the capabilities and use of artificial
00:14 intelligence through chatbots, voice cloning, image generations, video apps, and more. In
00:23 our challenging times, AI could power extraordinary progress for humanity, from predicting and
00:29 addressing crises to rolling out public health services and education services. AI could
00:37 scale up and amplify the work of governments, civil society, and the United Nations across
00:43 the board. For developing economies, AI offers the possibility of leapfrogging outdated technologies
00:52 and bringing services directly to people where needs are bigger and for the people that need
01:00 them most. The transformative potential of AI for good is difficult even to grasp. And
01:08 we are in urgent need of this enabler and accelerator, as many countries are already
01:13 reeling from the impact of the climate crisis, the 2030 agenda, our global blueprint for
01:18 peace and prosperity on a healthy planet is in deep trouble, and AI could help to turn
01:24 that around. It could supercharge climate action and efforts to achieve the 17 Sustainable
01:31 Development Goals by 2030. But all this depends on AI technologies being harnessed responsibly
01:38 and made accessible to all, including the developing countries that need them most.
01:43 To a succinct extent, AI expertise is concentrated in a handful of companies and countries. And
01:51 this could deepen global inequalities and turn digital divides into chasms. The potential
01:58 harms of AI extend to serious concerns over misinformation and disinformation, the entrenching
02:04 of bias and discrimination, surveillance and the invasion of privacy, fraud and other
02:09 violations of human rights. And without entering into a host of doomsday scenarios, it is already
02:16 clear that the malicious use of AI could undermine trust in institutions, weaken social cohesion
02:23 and threaten democracy itself. For all these reasons, I have called for a global multidisciplinary,
02:30 multistakeholder conversation on the governance of AI so that its benefits to humanity, all
02:36 of humanity are maximized and the risks contained are diminished. This advisory body is the
02:43 starting point. And this group will work independently, guided by some basic principles. The advisory
02:50 body efforts will be inclusive and based on the universal values enshrined in the United
02:54 Nations Charter. It will consider how we can link various AI governance initiatives that
02:59 are already underway and it will work fast because we are against the clock.