The United Nations is convening this week a global gathering to try to map out the frontiers of artificial intelligence and to harness its potential for empowering humanity.
The UN hopes to lay out a clear blueprint on the way forward for handling AI, as development of the technology races ahead the capacity to set its boundaries.
The “AI for Good Global Summit”, being held in Geneva on Thursday and Friday, will bring together around 3,000 experts from companies like Microsoft and Amazon as well as from universities and international organisations to try to sculpt frameworks for handling AI.
“This technology is moving fast,” said Doreen Bogdan-Martin, head of the International Telecommunication Union, the UN’s information and communications technology agency that convened the summit.
“It’s a real opportunity for the world’s leading voices on AI to come together on the global stage and to address governance issues,” she told reporters.
“Doing nothing is not an option. Humanity is dependent upon it. So we have to engage and try and ensure a responsible future with AI.”
She stated that the conference would look into potential frameworks and safeguards to support safe AI use.
Amazon’s chief technology officer Werner Vogels, Google DeepMind chief operational officer Lila Ibrahim, and former Spain football captain Iker Casillas – who suffered a heart attack in 2019 and now pushes for AI application in heart attack prevention – are among the participants.
They will be accompanied by dozens of robots, including many humanoids such as Ai-Da, the world’s most advanced life-like robot; Ameca, the world’s most advanced life-like robot; Desdemona, the humanoid rock singer; and Grace, the most sophisticated healthcare robot.
