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AI can have serious consequences for global peace, says UN Secretary General

The United Nations Security Council hosted a meeting to discuss the risks associated with AI, with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres emphasizing the serious consequences it could have on global peace and security.

The UN held its first meeting on AI risks recently.
During the meeting, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres talked about AI risks.
He said that AI could have some ‘serious consequences’ for global peace and security.

Ever since AI began advancing at an unprecedented pace, concerns regarding it reaching a point where it can massively impact human lives have often surfaced. And one of these concerns, as highlighted by various experts and studies, is AI’s use in military. Even the Godfather of AI, Geoffrey Hinton, had previously warned about the development of autonomous weapons using AI, which could be programmed to carry out immoral actions without human intervention.

The degree at which risks associated with AI used are being discussed reached a new level recently as for the first time ever, The United Nations Security Council held a meeting discussing the same. During the meeting, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres talked about AI risks and said that AI could have some ‘serious consequences’ for global peace and security.

UN hosts meeting on AI risks

According to a Reuters report, the meeting was attended by 15 member countries and was briefed by Guterres, co-founder of high-profile AI startup Anthropic Jack Clark, and Professor Zeng Yi, co-director of the China-UK Research Center for AI Ethics and Governance.

During the meeting, Guterres agreed to having a UN body to look after AI technologies and govern them. He said, “Both military and non-military applications of AI could have very serious consequences for global peace and security.”

China’s UN Ambassador, Zhang Jun, called AI a ‘double-edged sword’ and emphasised on the need of AI regulation so that the technology doesn’t become a ‘runaway horse’.

On the other hand, the United States cautioned against using AI to censor or oppress people during the meeting. Deputy US Ambassador to the UN, Jeffrey DeLaurentis, said, “No member states should use AI to censor, constrain, repress or disempower people.”

Britain’s Foreign Secretary stated that AI would transform human life and also called for global governance due to the technology’s borderless nature.

Meanwhile, Russia questioned the Security Council’s role in discussing AI, suggesting that such discussions should take place in specialised platforms focused on expertise-based analysis.

Russia’s Deputy U.N. Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy said, “What is necessary is a professional, scientific, expertise-based discussion that can take several years and this discussion is already underway at specialised platforms.”

Sam Altman on AI regulation

In May this year, Sam Altman had appeared before a Senate panel and told US lawmakers that artificial intelligence must be regulated. This was the first time that Altman appeared before the Senate panel and during the hearing, he told the US lawmakers about how AI can possibly go wrong and that the need of the hour is to come up with regulations. He also said that the government must withhold the power of revoking AI licences in case companies don’t follow the rules.

“I think if this technology goes wrong, it can go quite wrong. And we want to be vocal about that,” he had said and added, “We want to work with the government to prevent that from happening.”

Since Altman’s comments, there have been many discussions on AI regulation and Indian government is also working on a Digital India Bill to regulate AI.