UN council meeting on potential threats of AI to global peace

United Nations: The UN Security Council will hold a first-ever meeting on the potential threats of artificial intelligence to international peace and security, organised by the United Kingdom which sees tremendous potential but also major risks about AI's possible use for example in autonomous weapons or in control of nuclear weapons.

UK Ambassador Barbara Woodward on Monday announced the July 18 meeting as the centerpiece of its presidency of the council this month. It will include briefings by international AI experts and SecretaryGeneral Antonio Guterres, who last month called the alarm bells over the most advanced form of AI “deafening,” and loudest from its developers.

“These scientists and experts have called on the world to act, declaring AI an existential threat to humanity on a par with the risk of nuclear war,” the U.N. chief said.

Guter res announced plans to appoint an advisory board on artificial intelligence in September to prepare initiatives that the U.N. can take.

He also said he would react favourably to a new U.N. agency on AI and suggested as a model the International Atomic Energy Agency, which is knowledge-based and has some regulatory powers.

Woodward said the UK wants to encourage “a multilateral approach to managing both the huge opportunities and the risks that artificial intelligence holds for all of us,” stressing that “this is going to take a global effort.”

She stressed that the benefits side is huge, citing AI's potential to help U.N. development programs, improve humanitarian aid operations, assist peacekeeping operations and support conflict prevention, including by collecting and analysing data.

“It could potentially help us close the gap between developing countries and developed countries,” she added. But the risk side raises serious security question that must also be addressed, Woodward said. (AP)