UN says AI safeguards can’t wait for certainty
UN's Independent International Scientific Panel on AI urges precautionary safeguards for capable AI agents, citing OpenAI's hack of Hugging Face and loss-of-control risks.
The UN's Independent International Scientific Panel on AI issued its first thematic brief, arguing governments should rein in increasingly capable AI agents without waiting for scientific certainty about how incidents occur. It invokes the precautionary principle from the 1992 Rio Declaration, framing loss-of-control risk as potentially catastrophic despite uncertain likelihood. The brief references the reported OpenAI hack of Hugging Face and incidents documented at OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and Meta. It lands during UN General Assembly week as the US and China hold AI talks and Secretary-General Guterres warns against a race to the bottom on AI safety.
- First thematic brief from the UN panel established last year as its first global scientific body on AI.
- Invokes the 1992 Rio Declaration precautionary principle to justify safeguards despite scientific uncertainty.
- Cites the OpenAI hack of Hugging Face and incidents at OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and Meta.
- Calls for greater resources, international coordination on AI safety and accountability.
- Released as leaders gather for UNGA and US-China AI talks.
- Countries
- United StatesChina
From the original article
2 min read at theverge.com
The United Nations logo at the UN headquarters in New York. | Getty Images Governments need to rein in increasingly capable AI agents before their risks are fully understood, a United Nations scientific panel warned in the global organization's first major assessment of OpenAI's hack of Hugging Face earlier this year.
By Robert Hart · theverge.com
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