How to ensure AI is safe, accessible to everyone, and enhances productivity? That’s a big topic on the agenda for this year’s UN General Assembly. That’s why GZERO’s Global Stage livestream on Tuesday brought together leading experts at the heart of the action for “Live from the UN: Securing Our Digital Future.” The event was produced in collaboration with Complex Risk Analytics Fund (CRAF’d) and GZERO Media’s Global Stage Series, and sponsored by Microsoft. The conversation was moderated by Folly Bah Thibault, journalist and senior presenter at Al-Jazeera English.
Securing the future starts with building strong foundations. The International Monetary Fund plays a key role in this fight by tailoring funding to the needs of developing countries. But it goes beyond that, says Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva: “We don’t just provide money, we provide strong institutions.”
“The same strong institutions can help build a more peaceful world,” Czech President Petr Pavel said, but only if countries learn to compromise. “If we don’t want to live in conflict forever, we must finally learn that we have to share this planet.”
In that sense, finding shared values and putting money where it is needed most is key to tackling many of the problems facing the world – conflict, inequality and technological disruption. “What are regulations and policies without values?” asked Under-Secretary-General for Policy Guy Ryder, adding that good policies with adequate funding can “bring people together and educate them on how to use potentially transformative technologies.”
Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed said AI technologies would play a key role in helping the world achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, most of which are still in troubling progress. “Instead of stopping, it’s important that we really accelerate to achieve what we can achieve by 2030.”
Ian Bremmer, president of Eurasia Group and GZERO Media, said the collaboration with the UN on creating an international framework for AI is focused on “deploying AI to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.”
But safeguards alone aren’t enough, says Microsoft President Brad Smith. “Safeguards alone don’t guarantee that it’s in reach for everyone. Investments do,” he said. Microsoft is the largest investor in OpenAI, and has investments in more than 20 AI startups.
The U.S. State Department is also working to use artificial intelligence to promote global peace. “We view data as a lens to focus on the causes of instability,” said Anne Witkowski, assistant secretary of state for conflict and stabilization activities. That means using AI to piece together the big picture — economics, politics, climate, and sociology — to identify hotspots before problems get worse.
“We have climate centers that are predicting droughts, floods and locust plagues across Africa,” says Wakne Gebeyeff, executive director of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, giving an example of how pattern recognition techniques are being used to help farmers and governments respond in real time and avert the worst of the disasters.
Check out more footage from Global Stage:
