AI has potential for enormous good, says UN chief | 0% Opinion

Written by a human

United Nations (UN) Secretary-General António Guterres has said that the artificial intelligence (AI) is making headlines that are not always positive and that even the experts are warning of its potential dangers. He, however, added that AI also has the potential for enormous good.

The UN chief was speaking to the AI for Good Global Summit via video on Thursday.

The summit was convened by the International Telecommunication Union to recognize the collective duty of academia, governments, the private sector, UN agencies and others to ascertain AI excels, averting and diminishing harms.

Per the press release, Secretary-General Guterres said that powerful tools of AI could propel the UN 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals. He elaborated that AI can help make a giant stride in health care, cure diseases, reshape education and empower people all over the globe to build a better future.

Sustainable Development Goals, which were adopted by the UN in 2015, are the blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for people everywhere on the planet. These 17 interconnected goals include those related to climate change, environmental degradation, inequality, justice, peace and poverty.

“AI must benefit everyone, including the one third of humanity who are still offline,” said the UN leader. “Human rights, transparency and accountability must light the way.”

He added, “We must urgently find consensus around essential guardrails to govern the development and deployment of AI for the good of all.”

Guterres, who had previously announced plans to start work on a UN high-level advisory body on AI by the end of the year and just last month backed a proposal to form a UN artificial agency like the International Atomic Energy Agency, said, “I look to the AI for Good summit to continue to explore practical applications of AI that can advance the Sustainable Development Goals. These applications will complement the work of the High-level Advisory Body on AI that I am planning to establish, as well as the Global Digital Compact and preparations for the Summit of the Future next year.”

“Together, let’s spare no effort to harness the power of AI for good,” said the UN secretary-general towards the end of his video message for the summit.