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A newly-former United Nations panel has warned that artificial intelligence is moving to quickly and poses the potential to cause catastrophic harm.
The Independent International Scientific Panel on Artificial Intelligence is tasked with the challenge of figuring out how to best regulate AI, even as the technology continues to rapidly evolve.
“AI capabilities are outpacing both scientific understanding and governments’ ability to adapt,” said Yoshua Bengio, co-chair of the panel, which is composed of 40 cross-regional experts. “With growing evidence of deceptive AI behavior, science currently cannot guarantee that as capabilities continue to increase, AI will not cause catastrophic harm, either on its own or due to malicious users.”
The preliminary report “is a scientific assessment of the capabilities, emerging opportunities and risks of artificial intelligence.” Thus far, the panel has concluded that safeguards cannot keep pace with the growth of AI’s capabilities.
“The world cannot govern what it cannot understand. The Panel’s report provides independent science, drawn from every region, and available to every government,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said.
The panel is looking at several areas related to AI development:
- AI science, advances & trajectories
- Societal applications: science, health, education & agriculture
- Economic implications
- Security, systems & environmental implications
- Human rights, information & democracy
- Cultural & individual flourishing, autonomy and child safety
- Management, governance & reliability
The preliminary report, described as the beginning of the panel’s work, states that by the time evidence becomes clear, it might be too late to effectively govern AI.
Reuters reported that some AI models already display expert-level reasoning in subjects such as math and science. According to the wire service, while the potential economic and scientific benefits are vast, so too are the potential risks.
For example, the UN panel worried that AI already was being used to spread misinformation, create deepfakes and commit fraud.
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