Ethics | UNESCO calls on States to apply its recommendation on artificial intelligence

(Paris) UNESCO on Thursday called on states to apply its recommendation issued in 2021 to regulate artificial intelligence (AI), while Elon Musk and hundreds of experts called for a six-month pause on this research, citing “major risks to humanity”.

“The world needs ethical rules for artificial intelligence: this is the challenge of our time. The UNESCO recommendation on the ethics of AI sets the appropriate normative framework,” commented Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO, in a statement.

The 193 Member States of this UN organization had unanimously adopted in November 2021 a “first global normative framework for the ethical use of AI”, a “roadmap for countries, which describes how to amplify the benefits of AI while reducing the risks this technology entails,” according to UNESCO.

The result of three years of work, this text lists the actions to be carried out, in particular the establishment of a legislative tool to regulate and monitor AI, “ensure total security for personal and sensitive data” or even educate the masses to their subject.

“It is now urgent that all transpose this framework in the form of national strategies and regulations. We need to translate commitments into action,” Ms. Azoulay stressed, as according to her organization, “industry self-regulation is clearly not enough to avoid these ethical harms.”

More than forty countries “from all regions of the world” are already working to develop these safeguards “based on the recommendation”, according to UNESCO.

Hundreds of global experts, including Elon Musk, the owner of Twitter and founder of SpaceX and Tesla, and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, on Wednesday signed a call for a six-month pause in intelligence research. artificial.

In this petition, they call for a moratorium until security systems are in place, including new dedicated regulatory authorities, oversight of AI systems, techniques to help distinguish the real from the artificial, and institutions capable of handling the “dramatic economic and political disruption (especially to democracy) that AI will cause”.

“Should we let the machines flood our information channels with propaganda and lies? […] Should we risk losing control of our civilization? These decisions should not be delegated to unelected technology leaders,” they argued.