UNITED NATIONS -- A high-powered U.N.advisory body said Thursday that global governance of artificial intelligence is “imperative” and urged the United Nations to lay the foundations for the first inclusive global institutions to regulate the fast-growing technology.In a 100-page report, the group said AI “is transforming our world,” offering tremendous potential for good from opening new areas of science and accelerating economic growth to improving public health, agriculture and optimizing energy grids.The advisory body outlined principles that should guide formation of new institutions to govern AI including international law, and especially human rights law.It calls on all governments and parties involved in AI to work together to protect human rights.At present, the report said, only seven of the 193 U.N.
member nations are party to seven recent prominent AI governance initiatives while 118 countries, primarily in the global South, “are missing entirely” from any conversation.The advisory board's report concluded on a positive but cautious note.“As experts, we remain optimistic about the future of AI and its potential for good,” the report said.“That optimism depends, however, on realism about the risks and the inadequacy of structures and incentives currently in place.”The board stressed that “The technology is too important, and the stakes are too high, to rely only on market forces and a fragmented patchwork of national and multilateral action.” When the secretary-general told reporters last year that he planned to appoint the advisory body, Guterres said he would react favorably to a new U.N.agency on artificial intelligence and suggested as a model the International Atomic Energy Agency, which is knowledge-based and has some regulatory powers.Amandeep Singh Gill, the secretary-general's chief’s envoy on technology and a member of the advisory body, told a news conference launching the report that for now an agency isn’t needed, “but it’s not saying that we would never need something like that.” The board wants that possibility to be studied, he said.The report was issued ahead of the Summit of the Future starting Sunday which Guterres has called to try to unite the world’s divided nations and address the challenges and threats confronting humanity from conflicts and climate change to artificial intelligence and reforming the U.N.
