With the continuous development of artificial intelligence technology, people pay more and more attention to the use and standardization of this emerging technology to ensure its positive contribution to the development of mankind. The "Global Summit on Artificial Intelligence for the Benefit of Humanity" will be held in Geneva, Switzerland recently, with the International Telecommunication Union as the main organizer. Focusing on the application and governance of artificial intelligence, our reporter interviewed Thomas Ramanuskas, Deputy Secretary General of the International Telecommunication Union.
Reporter: With the development of artificial intelligence technology, its application fields are expanding, and the possibility of beneficial and harmful use is increasing at the same time. In this era, what are your expectations for this summit? In particular, what is new compared with last year's summit?
Thomas: Since 2017, the "Global Summit of Artificial Intelligence for the Benefit of Humanity" has been held for seven consecutive times, and people's interest in this topic has never been higher. ITU, together with 40 United Nations partners, maintains the annual "AI for Humanity" platform, which brings together leaders and shapers in many industries, and emphasizes that AI is the key force to promote sustainable development.
AI has played a positive role in medical care, agricultural efficiency and disaster management. AI solutions can also help reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by 5% to 10%. A report by McKinsey, a global management consulting company, predicts that generative AI will increase the global economy's revenue by about 2.6 trillion to 4.4 trillion dollars in the next few years.
Our "Innovation Factory" at the 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) showed incredible innovative results. For example, Poseidon artificial intelligence has reduced the cost of fish feed, the satellite data application TOLBI has improved cashew yield in West Africa, and SI Analytics' GeoCloud has improved the level of climate prediction.
Once released, generative AI has aroused strong public interest in this technology. With people increasingly worried about the future dominated by machines, we demonstrated how artificial intelligence and robot technology will accelerate the realization of the United Nations sustainable development goals.
However, we also face formidable challenges, including false information, deep forgery and persistent prejudice. Recent analysis shows that 45% of AI systems have gender bias. AI also has a great impact on the environment, and data centers consume more and more energy and water resources. Resource competition brings another risk. Competitive AI data centers are competing for scarce microprocessor chips.
All countries and regions are accelerating to improve the AI governance framework. This year's summit set up an "AI Governance Day". The Governance Day will provide an opportunity to review these frameworks, discuss how to ensure consistency and synergy among them, and promote the framework from principle to implementation. So far, more than 70 national and regional government departments and representatives from the private sector, academia and civil society have confirmed their participation. More than 60 high-level speakers will introduce different views. I look forward to the exchange of insights, especially the views of other professional fields on existing policies and regulations.
Reporter: Countries have different opinions on the development and governance of AI. As an international institution, how will ITU help all parties attending the summit reach consensus so that its results can improve the well-being of all mankind?
Thomas: The 17 sustainable development goals unanimously adopted by the member states of the United Nations in 2015 provide valuable guidance for the development of AI, helping us to judge the costs and benefits of AI from the perspective of climate action, education, health, gender equality, poverty eradication and other key goals. The International Telecommunication Union has always adopted a consensus approach to ensure that technology benefits all mankind, not just a few people.
Fundamentally, the future of AI depends on universal network connectivity. Today, about 2.6 billion people, or one third of human beings, still have no access to the Internet. At the same time, we see that developed countries dominate about 80% of data centers, and the gap between countries in the world in terms of high-performance computing infrastructure is even greater. AI patents are concentrated in a few countries, which further widens the digital divide, including digital skills, position in the value chain, representation of AI data sets, and preparation of AI policies.
Everyone can benefit from AI, but only if we are all involved in the accelerated development of the digital economy. Interestingly, compared with consumers in mature markets, consumers in low - and middle-income countries seem to be more excited about generative AI and less risk averse.
In promoting universal and meaningful network connectivity and sustainable digital transformation, ITU builds partnerships and promotes cooperation among a wide range of public and private sector stakeholders. Connecting people around the world remains the primary mission of ITU as the United Nations digital technology agency.
As one of our important initiatives, the "Global Summit on Artificial Intelligence for Humanity" brought together regulators, the private sector, civil society, international institutions in academia and other institutions to jointly explore the huge possibilities of AI in promoting shared prosperity and the well-being of the whole people. The values of fairness, sustainability, responsibility and inclusiveness are the starting points of AI development and governance.
Reporter: The signing of the Global Digital Compact is an important agenda of the UN "Future Summit" held in the second half of this year. What contribution do you think the "Global Summit of Artificial Intelligence for Humanity" will make to this end, and what role will it play in building an open, free and secure digital future?
Thomas: The insights of AI innovators, investors and industry participants can greatly enrich international discussions. Our summit agenda will continue to explore socio-economic, humanitarian, AI governance and other issues.
Initially, the "Global Summit on Artificial Intelligence for Humanity" was a solution summit. In the past seven years, although the Summit has been growing and developing, it has always adhered to its original intention, that is, to serve as a platform for learning, sharing and jointly creating the future of AI and promoting sustainable development.
For technologies like artificial intelligence, the world needs to customize the governance framework for various applications. Emerging technology governance is not new to ITU. Our nearly 160 year history has witnessed inclusive technological cooperation from the telegraph era to the radio spectrum, mobile broadband, digital revolution, and the infinite possibilities of artificial intelligence.
For the upcoming "Future Summit", the lessons we have learned from history will continue to apply. We need to build a platform to bring together the government, enterprises, academia and civil society; Financing and capacity-building for developing countries are needed.
The UN "Future Summit" held in September this year will help pave the way for global digital cooperation in the coming years. ITU is also contributing to the high-level AI advisory body of the Secretary General of the United Nations, which is drafting proposals on international governance.
When considering how to use AI to benefit mankind, we can't expect any panacea. We need to start from the correct vision and learn from the experience of all parties; We must adhere to the principles of fairness, inclusiveness and sustainability; All countries in the world must cooperate in the field of artificial intelligence. Only in this way can we create a future where technology can be used as a tool to promote global prosperity and development.
Reporter: China is one of the world's leading countries in AI development and application. Earlier this year, China put forward the concept of "AI+". How do you think China's practices reflect the theme of "AI benefits mankind"?
Thomas: The practice of the United Nations is to bring the world to the dialogue table. This is also the way that ITU has put into practice in the global scientific and technological community, that is, to realize the interconnection between various systems, networks and services through technical standards, and to ensure that everyone has access to them. It is this collaborative approach and inclusive spirit that AI benefits mankind.
As the main force of AI innovation, China needs to participate in these discussions. We welcome China's participation in the research on AI opportunities, challenges, risks and governance issues. China's leading technology companies are welcome to attend the upcoming summit as sponsors and speakers. China Telecom, Alibaba Group, Huawei and ZTE will all participate in it. We look forward to their opinions on AI and how to expand benefits.
Recently, experts from Baidu and Alibaba delivered a speech on the development frontier of big language models in China and Southeast Asia at the webinar on the benefits of artificial intelligence to human beings. The knowledge enhanced big language model "Wenxin Yiyan" launched by Baidu last year has attracted more than 200 million users. At the same time, Alibaba Group's Dharma Institute is solving the problem of regional language diversity through "SeaLLM" based on the Llama-2 model, and enhancing these models through continuous pre training, vocabulary expansion, professional guidance, etc. to master different languages of Southeast Asian countries.
All these show that China's AI development can empower a wider group, and it is possible to bring the benefits of AI and sustainable digital transformation to hundreds of millions of new users. (Source of this article: Economic Daily reporter: Liang Tong)
