United Nations (UN) Secretary General António Guterres on Monday called for the creation of an international agency to oversee the development of AI.
At a press conference in New York, where he presented a proposal to regulate AI and end online disinformation, Guterres defended that the new agency act along the lines of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in relation to the nuclear branch. .
This possibility was recently raised by several specialists in the sector, including the OpenAI company -which developed the popular ChatGPT- and, according to the British press, it is being promoted by the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Rishi Sunak, who wants the body that settle in London.
“That will depend on the initiatives of the member states, but I would be in favor of the idea that we can have an artificial intelligence agency, let’s say inspired by what is now the International Atomic Energy Agency,” Guterres said.
The Vienna-based IAEA was founded in 1957 to promote and control nuclear energy and is part of the United Nations structure.
Guterres clarified that a decision of this type is in the hands of the countries that make up the United Nations, but affirmed that the UN would like to be “at the center of all the networks and movements” that are established to manage AI.
As he explained, the advantage of a body like the IAEA is that it has a “very solid knowledge base” and, at the same time, it has certain regulatory functions.
“I think this model can be very interesting,” said Guterres, who in any case stressed the need to work on this process with the companies that are developing AI and that are the ones that have the real technical experts at the moment.
Likewise, the head of the United Nations reported that in the coming days he will form a group of scientific advisers to work on the next steps in the field of AI, including the preparation of a summit that he is organizing for this year in the United Kingdom.
Later, after the annual September meetings of the United Nations General Assembly, Guterres plans to create an advisory body for all things artificial intelligence.
The UN Secretary General already proposed last week a major global compact to manage digital technologies, including the rapid advancement of AI.
“New technology is advancing at an enormous speed, as are the threats that accompany it,” Guterres recalled on Monday, stressing that it is the creators of artificial intelligence who are sounding the alarm.
“These scientists and experts called on the world to act, declaring that AI is an existential threat to humanity equivalent to the risk of nuclear war,” said the former Portuguese prime minister.
Source: TSF
