Earlier this year, the United Nations Tech Envoy announced the creation of a High-Level Artificial Intelligence Advisory Body to foster a globally inclusive approach to AI governance. UTS Human Technology Institute has published a short paper in support of the Body with suggestions for how it can contribute to robust interoperable AI governance on an international level.
Artificial intelligence (AI) systems are already ubiquitous in global digital ecosystems, yet their benefits are not equally shared, nor are their harms equally distributed. Despite AI’s ubiquity, countries’ access to and regulation, governance, and consideration of the risks of AI systems differ vastly. This raises issues of interoperability and broader concerns about societal impacts that remain inconsistently acknowledged or addressed.
While some jurisdictions, such as the European Union and China, have moved relatively rapidly on the discussion and proposal of regulatory frameworks, standards development, and organisational governance approaches, most countries and regions are only just now starting to explore this area.
This combination of rapid technological rollout and uneven progress in terms of regulatory response makes serious and thoughtful efforts towards and research around practical forms of global AI governance both urgent and complex.
HTI believes that there is a clear need for far higher levels of coordination and a commitment to the interoperability of AI governance at the global level, including among both UN member states and multinational corporations across all sectors, including the prohibition of certain uses that undermine human rights or expedite the demise of democracy. HTI supports the UN High Level AI Advisory Body to take up this important task.
AI governance also plays a crucial role in safeguarding human rights and meeting the SDG goals, including the protection of the environment, one of the greatest challenges we have seen in our lifetime. Robust and effective governance mechanisms at the global level must ensure that the benefits of AI are democratized, reaching all countries, not just those with the resources to fund AI system development, and share resources equitably and sustainably.
All UN member states stand to gain immensely from a globally coordinated AI approach.
Read HTI's submission to the UN High Level AI Advisory Body here