Future of AI should not be decided by ‘a few billionaires,’ UN boss warns

NEW DELHI—United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has called upon the world to keep the development of artificial intelligence open to all.

“The future of AI can not be decided by a couple of countries, or left to the whims of a few billionaires,” Guterres said Thursday at the India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi.

The annual global artificial intelligence summit is taking place for the first time in a country of the Global South, a group of emerging economies in Asia, Africa and Latin America, after previous summits in the U.K., South Korea and France.

“AI must belong to everyone. We must replace hype and fear with sharing evidence,” Guterres said.

He urged countries, experts and industry to contribute to the work of the newly established U.N. Independent International Scientific Panel on AI.

Guterres lauded the technology’s potential, but warned AI must be “safe for everyone.” There’s also a need to invest in workers, he said, to ensure the technology “augments human potential, not only replaces it.”

Dario Amodei, CEO of AI company Anthropic, delivered a similar warning during his speech.

“We believe that AI will greatly grow the economic pie, including in India and the Global South, but that because it is happening so fast, it may lead to a time of disruption.”