On February 18, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker TurkHe warned that developments in Artificial Intelligence pose a great danger to people's human rights. According to Turk, The latest advances in AI pose a serious threat to people's privacy.Therefore, it is necessary to adjust this technology to prevent violations. For this reason, more than 60 UN member states have requested the regulation of AI for their defense. to ensure that it does not affect international security, stability and responsibility.
Although advances in Artificial Intelligence hold great promise for the evolution of the world in general, The truth is that they also pose a serious risk to peopleFirst, because of the fear that these types of tools could replace humans in their professions, and second, because of the possibility that these technologies affect the fundamental rights of individualsTaking into account that AI could even escalate a military conflict and perpetrate an unprecedented massacre.
The UN says AI violates our human rights
It's no secret that Artificial Intelligence has entered our daily livesPrimarily, they have revolutionized internet searches. Beyond this, these systems have also changed how we monitor our health and have demonstrated their ability to generate all kinds of written content in seconds, with a simple request from the user.
Recently, the rise of ChatGPT in the tech industry has sparked countless conversations and opinions about the potential impact of chatbots of this type. While the tool developed by OpenAI has transformed many areas in the tech and IT fields, but it has caused controversy in the worldFirstly, because of its ability to encourage plagiarism, as its text generation capabilities caused alarm in schools and universities. Since then, His absolute suitability was called into question.
Thus, both ChatGPT and AI-based tools have raised numerous concerns about existing social, cultural, and political bias. Many experts have pointed out significant ethical concerns regarding the use of these tools. since it could generate unexpected results and violate the law in many ways, in case they do not reveal optimal functioning.
However, this is not the most worrying aspect of the case. On February 18, it was revealed that AI has a significant potential to violate our human rights. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and head of the agency, Volker Turk, issued a statement warning that recent advances in Artificial Intelligence They represent a serious threat to human rights..
«I am deeply disturbed by the potential for harm of recent advances in #ArtificialIntelligence. Human agency, human dignity and all human rights are at serious risk. “This is an urgent call for both business and governments to quickly develop effective guardrails.” – @volker_turk pic.twitter.com/HVxvyRNgME
- UN Geneva (@UNGeneva) February 20, 2023
This is why I do not hesitate to make an urgent appeal to companies and governments to develop rapidly effective security measures. This is also why more than 60 nations (including China and the United States) have requested regulations on AI for their defense. with the aim of preventing such technology from undermining international security, stability and responsibilityHence, Turk's plan to devise new safeguards strategies to prevent violations.
“I am deeply concerned about the potential for harm from recent advances in artificial intelligence,” said the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Volker Turk, UN High Commissioner and head of human rights.
For its part, The UN High Commissioner's concerns began when he perceived a growing demand for AI-guided drones and "killing robots"., which can operate without intervention from trained humans.
As announced in San Francisco (United States), where Police can now deploy robots that kill humans And although this measure faced strong opposition from human rights groups, The city's police force has a dozen robots to enhance vision in complex areas and act against criminals.
Just like this development, there are many more that, according to Turk, They have the potential to escalate a military conflict and unleash a global massacreThis primarily violates the right to life, the right to a resource, and the principle of dignity, in addition to negatively impacting many other rights that every person possesses. Therefore, AI is a great danger to society.
“Human agency, human dignity, and all human rights are at serious risk. This is an urgent call to both businesses and governments to develop the rapidly effective protection measures that are so urgently needed.”
Volker Turk, UN High Commissioner and head of human rights.
Should AI be regulated in the future?
For the UN High Commissioners, It is unacceptable to continue reacting belatedly to the effects of AI on society Therefore, they cannot continue to allow its use without borders or oversight, as its consequences for human rights are unavoidable. For this reason, they propose that those who develop and implement AI tools ensure that human rights are put first. as a fundamental aspect for the true evolution of technologywithout having to take serious risks.
“We will follow this closely, provide our specific expertise, and ensure that the human rights dimension remains central to this progress.”
Volker Turk, UN High Commissioner and head of human rights.
In other words, the representatives of the United Nations They propose that AI be regulated in the not-too-distant future.. For example, Michelle BacheletShe, who served as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights between 2018 and 2022, stated that the development of some of these Artificial Intelligence tools should be halted, re-evaluated, and then revived. until appropriate safeguards for users have been put in place.
Therefore, they emphasize the urgent need to establish a moratorium on the sale, distribution, and use of AI systems that seriously threaten human rights. While they acknowledge that these developments can help societies overcome some of their greatest challenges, they also state that They can have harmful and even catastrophic effects when implemented without due attention to their potential to violate human rights..
“The greater the risk to human rights, the stricter the legal requirements for the use of AI technology should be. But assessing the dangers and how to overcome them may still take some time, which is why States should implement moratoriums now on the use of technologies that present a high risk potential.”
Michelle Bachelet, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
A clear example of how AI tools can affect people's human rights, Its operation is in automated profiling systems and other machine learning technologies..
According to the UN's high commissions, these technologies can infringe upon the right to privacy and other rights related to health, freedom of expression, freedom of movement, and education. Today, there are already several cases in which people have been "unfairly treated" through the use of AI. as a result of errors in facial recognition systems.
