The United Nations on Monday, July 6, urged governments to act quickly to regulate artificial intelligence, warning that the technology is rapidly advancing while governance is struggling to keep pace.
During his keynote address at the UN Conference, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that AI poses growing risks to human rights, public trust, inequality and global security if left unchecked.
He stressed that the technology was progressing at a “runaway speed,” but warned that “an experiment is being run on our own societies, without a plan and without consent.”
In the speech, Guterres outlined three warnings and four priorities for AI governance, urging countries to work together to ensure the technology benefits humanity.
UN chief warns risks of autonomous AI, denounces ‘killer robots’
The UN chief pointed out that “AI is already transforming our world,” comparing it to the advent of electricity and the Internet.
Though unlike the two, he said that AI’s advancement was unprecedented.
Guterres warned that the concern extends beyond the technology’s rapid adoption.
He said AI systems are no longer simply tools that respond to human commands, but are increasingly capable of “writing code, acting online, and making choices with less and less human oversight.”
“Our institutions were built to govern machines that follow commands. They are not ready for machines that decide,” he said, warning that “some lines, once crossed, cannot be uncrossed.”
Among the most alarming consequences of increasingly autonomous AI, Guterres pointed to its growing use in warfare through what he described as “lethal autonomous weapon systems.”
“Let us call them what they are: Killer robots,” he said.
He called such systems “morally repugnant” and called for them to be banned by international law.
“Machines selecting and engaging their target and taking a life – without human control and judgement.”
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