UN chief Guterres backs proposal to form watchdog to monitor AI
Al JazeeraThe United Nations secretary-general has warned that artificial intelligence is being used to spread disinformation and hate, as he backed a proposal for the creation of an international watchdog to monitor the technology. Guterres said he backs a proposal by some artificial intelligence executives for the creation of a watchdog body similar to the International Atomic Energy Agency. Generative AI technology – which can perform natural language processing tasks such as answering questions, summarising text and even generating lines of code – has captivated the public since ChatGPT launched six months ago. But on Monday he added: “I would be favourable to the idea that we could have an artificial intelligence agency … inspired by what the international agency of atomic energy is today.” Guterres said such a model could be “very interesting” but noted that “only member states can create it, not the Secretariat of the United Nations”. Global AI safety regulation ChatGPT’s creator OpenAI said last month that a body like the IAEA could place restrictions on deployment, vet compliance with safety standards and track usage of computing power.