story

UN Security Council to Hold First Talks on AI Risks

    UN Security Council to Hold First Talks on AI Risks
    Last updated Jul 17, 2023
    Image credit: Wikimedia Commons

    Facts

    • On Tuesday, the United Nations Security Council will hold its first-ever meeting to discuss the potential threats that artificial intelligence (AI) poses to global peace and security.
    • The development comes after UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres last month called for the creation of an international AI watchdog to take the warnings of generative AI being "an existential threat to humanity" seriously.
    • Tuesday's meeting — to be chaired by UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly — is expected to feature briefings from international AI experts as well as from Guterres, who has also announced plans to create an AI advisory board in September.
    • The UK's ambassador to the UN — Barbara Woodward — said the meeting would be the centerpiece of the UK's Security Council presidency, stressing the UK wished to promote a "multilateral approach" to the "huge opportunities and risks" of AI.
    • The UK, which will also host an AI summit later this year for "like-minded countries" and its leaders, is expected to add AI to its published list of national threats on the national risk register this week.
    • According to a recent survey, more than a quarter of participating Britons said they had used generative AI, while one in ten respondents admitted using an AI at least once per day.

    Spin

    Narrative A

    AI systems with abilities exceeding the limits of human capacity are on the horizon. If done at the right pace and with the right regulation, they could offer unprecedented solutions to humanity — but they could also destroy humanity unless governments stop the dangerous AI development race between Big Tech.

    Narrative B

    Artificial intelligence experts continue to overblow the technology's risk and engage in unrealistic fear-mongering. Although current technology is impressive, artificial general intelligence — the true concern — is still a long way off. By consistently releasing warnings about its far-fetched consequences, tech experts ignore the economic benefits AI promises.

    Nerd narrative

    There's an 85% chance that we will see an event precipitated by AI malfunction that causes at least 100 deaths and/or at least $1B 2021 USD in economic damage before 2032, according to the Metaculus prediction community.


    Articles on this story

    Sign up to our newsletter!