UN recommends global AI fund to address AI risks and governance

An AI advisory body at the United Nations (UN) has released a report outlining its recommendations to address risks posed by AI technology and gaps in its governance.

Among its seven recommendations, the advisory body said a global AI fund should be set up to address gaps in capacity and increase collaboration. This would boost AI governance capacity as well as increasing opportunities for training.

In its report, the advisory body also proposed setting up an AI standards exchange involving representatives from standards organizations, tech companies, and civil society, to ensure technical interoperability of AI systems across countries.

The report warned that should AI remain ungoverned, the opportunities the technology provides may not be distributed equitably. Widening these digital divides, could limit the benefits of AI to “a handful of states, companies and individuals.”

The recommendations will be discussed at a summit to be held later this year.

The advisory body was set up in October last year and comprises 39 AI leaders from 33 countries from multiple sectors.

“This suite of technologies offers tremendous potential for good, from opening new areas of scientific inquiry and optimising energy grids, to improving public health and agriculture and promoting broader progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),” the report said. “Missed uses – failing to take advantage of and share AI-related benefits because of lack of trust or missing enablers such as capacity gaps and ineffective governance – could limit the opportunity.”