The United Nations Council of Presidents of the General Assembly (UNCPGA) recently released a report seeking immediate global coordination in the wake of the emergence of artificial general intelligence (AGI). At present, leading tech giants OpenAI, Google, and Meta are working towards achieving AGI, which are essentially systems that are capable of equalling or surpassing human intelligence in various cognitive tasks.
OpenAI’s Sam Altman has been saying AGI may be on the horizon although these human intelligence-level systems aren’t here yet. Similarly, Google DeepMind, as a step towards AGI, is reportedly working towards creating a ‘world-modelling’ team to simulate environments. Meta, on the other hand, is reportedly investing $15 billion into Scale AI and a 50-member squad to accelerate its AGI vision. Anthropic is working on safe and adaptable models, and there are speculations that it will reach AGI in the next two to three years. So far, no company has demonstrated true AGI, and most of these are scaling up multimodal and reinforcement-learning systems.
Even though AGI seems to be a work in progress, the UNCPGA report suggests that with massive financial investments in history and unprecedented R&D efforts, AGI could emerge within this decade. It could lead to some extraordinary benefits, such as the acceleration of scientific discoveries related to public health, transformation of industries and increased productivity, and even contribute to the realisation of sustainable development goals. The report also acknowledges that AGI could lead to unique and potentially ‘catastrophic risks’. AGI could execute harmful actions beyond human oversight, resulting in irreversible impacts.
“Without proactive global management, competition among nations and corporations will accelerate risky AGI development, undermine security protocols, and exacerbate geopolitical tensions. Coordinated international action can prevent these outcomes, promoting secure AGI development and usage, equitable distribution of benefits, and global stability,” reads the report.
The UNCPGA report recommends immediate and coordinated international action supported by the United Nations to effectively address the global challenges that could arise owing to AGI. The report underscores six major risks, including loss of human control over AGI; AGI-enabled weapons of mass destruction; cybersecurity vulnerabilities; economic instability; autonomous AGI with existential risks; and missed opportunities to solve global challenges.
On the other hand, the UN panel also listed its recommendations to mitigate these risks, which include bold and coordinated steps, including a dedicated UN General Assembly session on AGI; a global AGI Observatory to track the development and risks; a certification system for secure and trustworthy AGI; A proposed UN framework convention on AGI governance; and exploring a dedicated UN agency for global coordination.
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