UN wants AI to tackle global challenges

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said AI could drive forward the UN Sustainable Development Goals at the opening day of the "AI for Good" Global Summit on Thursday in Geneva.

"AI has the potential for enormous good…by making a massive leap in healthcare and eradicating diseases that affect millions; by transforming education and empowering people everywhere to build a better future," said Guterres.

Guterres also emphasized that harm should be prevented and mitigated while ensuring AI to reach its "full potential".

"AI must benefit everyone, including the one-third of humanity who are still offline. Human rights, transparency, and accountability must light the way," said Guterres, who revealed that he is planning to establish a High-level Advisory Body on AI.

The "AI for Good" Global Summit is organized by the International Telecommunication Union, the UN specialized agency for information and communication technologies, which tries to harness trusted artificial intelligence to tackle global challenges.

The two-day event, which ends on Friday, has attracted over 3,000 attendees from international organizations, universities, and notable tech companies like Google DeepMind, Amazon and Microsoft.

Doreen Bogdan-Martin, secretary-general of the ITU, stressed the importance of taking actions as she said the SDGs are "off track" while using AI to help put the agenda back on track is a "responsibility" in her keynote speech.

She also called for a global governance framework for AI as many of the questions that humans have on the technology have no answers yet.

"Here's what we know for sure: AI development will not wait; the Sustainable Development Goals will not wait; and failure is not an option. That's the moment we're in," she said.

"It's actually a historic moment - and it's a moment that calls for action. And today, I'm calling on each of you to use this summit to help the world to better understand what kinds of regulations, what kinds of guardrails we need to put in place right now for the development and deployment of AI that is inclusive, that is safe and that is responsible," Bogdan-Martin said.

The first day of the event witnessed dozens of robots, including several humanoids, taking the center stage. For example, Grace, who is said to be the world's foremost nursing assistant robot, was showcased during a panel discussing robots that can care.

Developed to provide support and care for the elderly, Grace can recognize emotions, shows perpetual empathy, and understands more than 100 languages, according to a UN press release.

As how AI can revolutionize healthcare is one of the key themes of the summit this year, the World Health Organization on Thursday launched a Global Initiative on AI for Health in partnership with the ITU and the World Intellectual Property Organization to enable people to create safe AI for health and help them to implement those tools at a country level.

"AI is already playing a role in diagnosis and clinical care, drug development, disease surveillance, outbreak response, and health system management," said the WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

"For this new technology holds great potential, we must be cognizant of governance, ethics, and equity," he added.