UN Adopts First-Ever Resolution Aimed At Keeping AI Safe

India-West News Desk

NEW YORK, NY – Setting aside their polarizing differences, all 193 countries joined together to adopt a landmark resolution aiming to keep the world safe from the excesses of artificial intelligence.

The UN General Assembly’s resolution passed unanimously on March 21 stressed “the urgency of achieving global consensus on safe, secure and trustworthy artificial intelligence systems” in the face of “potential risk for accidents and compound threats from malicious actors”.

At last September’s gathering of world leaders at the General Assembly, President Joe Biden said the United States planned to work with competitors around the world to ensure AI was harnessed “for good while protecting our citizens from this most profound risk.”

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris lauding the resolution said, “AI must be in the public interest – it must be adopted and advanced in a way that protects everyone from potential harm and ensures everyone is able to enjoy its benefits.” 

India’s Permanent Representative Ruchira Kamboj said in a post on X after its adoption, “Happy to co-sponsor the Resolution on AI.” The resolution was proposed by the US and co-sponsored by 123 countries, including India and China. It was adopted by consensus with a bang of the gavel and without a vote, meaning it has the support of all 193 U.N. member nations, AP reported.

The resolution emphasizes the role of AI in promoting global development while making sure it protects private data and human rights and is tested for vulnerabilities before deployment.

The resolution, which calls for the development of regulations for “safe, secure and trustworthy” AI systems, also acknowledges the importance of domestic priorities and national and “subnational” policies in framing them.

The unanimity at the UN stresses the fears over AI’s potential to disrupt politics and society through deepfakes and spreading misinformation, and its more sinister capabilities in warfare, development of weapons and disrupting economies.

“In a moment in which the world is seeming to be agreeing on little, perhaps the most quietly radical aspect of this resolution is the wide consensus forged in the name of advancing progress,” US Permanent Representative Linda Thomas-Greenfield said of its significance.

She added that she worked with more than 120 countries for several months to achieve a consensus and had put the resolution’s draft through several edits.

For wider acceptance and tamping down dissidence, the resolution highlights AI’s role in helping developing nations, especially the poorest, and calls for bridging the digital divide among and within nations that AI could widen.

An important goal of the resolution is deploying AI for “achieving sustainable development in its three dimensions — economic, social and environmental — with specific consideration of developing countries and leaving no one behind”.

The resolution calls for measures to “promote innovation for the internationally interoperable identification, classification, evaluation, testing, prevention and mitigation of vulnerabilities and risks during the design and development and prior to the deployment and use of artificial intelligence systems”.