UN Sounds Alarm On AI Nearing Human-Like Intelligence 'AGI', Urges Action
The United Nations has warned about human-level artificial intelligence (AI), popularly referred to as Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), and urged action as the new technology evolves rapidly. The United Nations Council of Presidents of the General Assembly (UNCPGA) released a report seeking global coordination to deal with the perils of AGI, which could become a reality in the coming years.
The report highlighted that though AGI could "accelerate scientific discoveries related to public health" and transform many industries, its downside could not be ignored.
"While AGI holds the potential to accelerate scientific discovery, advance public health, and help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, it also poses unprecedented risks, including autonomous harmful actions and threats to global security," the report stated.
"Unlike traditional AI, AGI could autonomously execute harmful actions beyond human oversight, resulting in irreversible impacts, threats from advanced weapon systems, and vulnerabilities in critical infrastructures. We must ensure these risks are mitigated if we want to reap the extraordinary benefits of AGI."
The report highlighted that immediate and coordinated international action, supported by the UN, was essential to prevent AGI from becoming a menace.
"Such actions should be initiated by a special UN General Assembly specifically on AGI to discuss the benefits and risks of AGI and potential establishment of a global AGI observatory, certification system for secure and trustworthy AGI, a UN Convention on AGI, and an international AGI agency."
DeepMind CEO warns
In February, Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google DeepMind stated that AGI will start to emerge in the next five or 10 years. He also batted for a UN-like umbrella organisation to oversee AGI's development.
"I would advocate for a kind of CERN for AGI, and by that, I mean a kind of international research focused high-end collaboration on the frontiers of AGI development to try and make that as safe as possible," said Mr Hassabis.
"You would also have to pair it with a kind of an institute like IAEA, to monitor unsafe projects and sort of deal with those. And finally, some kind of supervening body that involves many countries around the world that input how you want to use and deploy these systems. So a kind of like UN umbrella, something that is fit for purpose for a that, a technical UN," he added.
As per a research paper by DeepMind, AGI could arrive by early as 2030 and "permanently destroy humanity",
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