The United Nations rights chief, Volker Turk, has warned that recent advances in artificial intelligence pose a serious threat to human rights and called for safeguards to prevent violations. This follows a call this week by more than 60 nations, including the United States and China, for regulating AI in defence to ensure it “does not undermine international security, stability, and accountability”. Concerns have been raised over AI-guided drones, “slaughterbots” that can kill without human intervention, and the risk that artificial intelligence could escalate military conflicts.
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Artificial intelligence has revolutionised internet searches, changed the way we monitor our health, and brought about new innovations such as an app capable of generating all sorts of written content in seconds on a simple request. However, critics have raised issues such as breaches of privacy and biased algorithms.
“We will follow this closely, provide our specific expertise and ensure that the human rights dimension remains central to how this goes forward,” Turk said.
