The United Nations (UN) has adopted its first resolution on artificial intelligence, which was recently proposed by Morocco and the United States before the General Assembly.
The UN resolution, which came after more than three months of deliberations, seeks to ensure that technology is used in a “safe and trustworthy” manner for sustainable development without jeopardising human rights.
The UN spearheaded the push to pass the resolution, which got overwhelming support from all 193 member states.
In addition to supporting safe, secure, and dependable artificial intelligence systems to accelerate the full implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the resolution aims to close artificial intelligence and other digital gaps between and within nations.
US officials emphasised in a briefing on Wednesday that the resolution’s unanimous passage is an important first step towards establishing worldwide AI safeguards, despite the fact that it is non-binding and lacks an enforcement mechanism.
A senior Biden administration official stated that “this first-ever standalone resolution on AI at the United Nations is a consensus resolution—that means that all 193 member states will agree to it, and trust me, that is no easy feat.” As of Wednesday, 97 countries have also co-sponsored the resolution, with the number increasing “literally by the hour.”
Jake Sullivan, the US National Security Advisor, describes the resolution’s approval as a “historic step forward” in advocating ethical AI use.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Sullivan stated that the resolution “would represent global support for a baseline set of principles for the development and use of AI and would lay out a path to leverage AI systems for good while managing risks.”
According to US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, both artificial intelligence and the United Nations were founded in the years following World War II, and they have evolved and expanded concurrently.
She went on to explain that as the United Nations and artificial intelligence come together, the global community would have to decide how to handle the technology.
Following the vote, the US envoy was joined by ambassadors from the Bahamas, Japan, the Netherlands, Morocco, Singapore, and the United Kingdom in a news conference to support the resolution as a critical step forward for all countries.