Source: AFP
Walking through Davos, where the world’s elites gathered for the World Economic Forum this week, there were two inescapable words in the windows: artificial intelligence.
If 2023 was the year when everyone, including investors and politicians, got feverishly excited about AI, 2024 looks set to be a more sober year where people try to address how the world benefits from AI while mitigating the risks. her.
Artificial intelligence was the buzzword at the World Economic Forum when they weren’t talking about a possible return of former US President Donald Trump.
The world’s biggest tech companies, including Google, Meta and Microsoft, were out in force, with their top executives in town for panels as well as informal talks with businesses and politicians from around the world.
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The AI ββhype reached a fever pitch last year after ChatGPT burst onto the scene in late 2022, demonstrating the technology’s rapid advancements.
The chatbot could pour out expressive poems and essays in seconds, and even pass medical and legal exams.
ChatGPT has also focused on regulating AI to protect people from risks and harness innovation, with politicians in China, the European Union and the United States passing or working on legislation last year.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Wednesday that climate and artificial intelligence were “exhaustively discussed” by governments, media and leaders in Davos.
“And yet we still don’t have an effective global strategy to deal with any,” he said.
Chinese Premier Li Qiang called for global cooperation on the issue, while Guterres told reporters that President Xi Jinping had told him he wanted the United Nations to be at the center of AI governance efforts.
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Guterres last year created a commission on artificial intelligence that delivered a draft report in December, recommending five guiding principles for artificial intelligence, including inclusion.
Microsoft chairman ‘optimistic’
The cautious tone had already been set before Davos began on Monday after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) published a report with disappointing statistics.
The IMF said AI will affect nearly 40 percent of jobs worldwide and about 60 percent in the advanced world — replacing some jobs while complementing others.
With people from around the world including China, India, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, it also focused on what AI will mean for the Global South.
The UN panel of experts includes Marietje Schaake, director of international policy at Stanford University’s Cyber ββPolicy Center.
The United Nations has a “unique role with its global legitimacy,” he said, “to right the wrong, if you want to think of it that way, that it has not included people, their environment, their lived experiences, their their needs from the global South”.
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Microsoft Chairman Brad Smith told AFP he was already “optimistic” ahead of Davos about the world working better together for artificial intelligence. “Nothing has changed,” he said.
“What Davos allows for is a lot of conversations with people who aren’t always in the same room, and you take stock of where things are, you find out where people have common values ββand you find where you have challenges to deal with,” he said on Wednesday. .
Sapthagiri Chapalapalli, head of Tata Consultancy Services Europe, said the “vast majority” of people he spoke to at Davos “feel that (AI) has enormous potential.”
Source: AFP
He described how he fielded different questions from attendees, including how to use artificial intelligence to improve productivity.
Another question that came up, Chapalapalli said, was: “How do we do AI in a more responsible way?”
The EU believes that its comprehensive legislation on the regulation of artificial intelligence is one of the answers to managing the risks of the technology.
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Fears of misinformation
There is already a big test for regulators and companies as billions around the world prepare to vote in polls in Europe, India, Mexico and the United States.
At Davos, the risks posed by AI to this election were on the agenda.
Senior EU official Vera Jurova said she pressed the tech giants on what they were doing to prepare for the election.
Jourova also said that Brussels’ efforts on the “AI Law” were welcome.
“What I hear very often from American companies is that the European way of regulating futures mitigates risks in advance, that it creates more legal certainty than in the United States,” he told reporters.
ChatGPT creator OpenAI CEO Sam Altman acknowledged concerns about AI’s impact on elections this year, but insisted his company was “focused” on the issue.
Source: AFP