Bletchley Park, UK, Nov 1 (EFE).- Artificial intelligence (AI) has potentially “catastrophic” consequences for humanity, world governments meeting at a security summit in the United Kingdom warned Wednesday.
The United States, China, India and European Union members such as France, Germany and Spain were among the 29 signatories of a joint declaration that stresses that it is “especially urgent” to analyze the dangers posed by the technology and agree on early preventive measures to curb its growing influence.
“We resolve to work together in an inclusive manner to ensure human-centric, trustworthy and responsible AI,” says the declaration, which was agreed ahead of the summit and which stresses that the best way to address the risks is “international cooperation”.
Gathered at Bletchley Park, the English enclave where Nazi communication codes were broken during World War II, representatives of the leading global powers in technology noted AI’s “transformative potential” which can “enhance human wellbeing, peace and prosperity.”
But “significant risks” accompany those potential benefits, the statement acknowledges, while highlighting the need to ensure that AI development remains subject to “appropriate human oversight.”
The summit also addressed the “unforeseen” dangers of AI “stemming from the capability to manipulate content or generate deceptive content,” as well as warning of future threats from so-called “frontier” systems which “match or exceed the capabilities present in today’s most advanced models.”
In addition to misinformation, governments say they are particularly concerned about AI applications in fields such as cybersecurity and biotechnology.
“There is potential for serious, even catastrophic, harm, either deliberate or unintentional,” the joint communiqué stresses.
“Given the rapid and uncertain rate of change of AI, and in the context of the acceleration of investment in technology, we affirm that deepening our understanding of these potential risks and of actions to address them is especially urgent,” the statement adds.
The UK has pushed for the first global security summit on artificial intelligence (AISS), which will reconvene in six months’ time in South Korea and in a year’s time in France.
This first meeting, which will last until Thursday, is being attended, in addition to governments, by representatives of major global technology companies, including OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Anthropic, Meta and Microsoft. EFE
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