On Monday the United Nations General Assembly adopted a Chinese-sponsored resolution calling for richer countries to assist developing nations profit from AI.
The non-binding resolution, entitled “Enhancing international cooperation on capacity-building of artificial intelligence”, was introduced by China’s everlasting representative to the UN, Fu Cong.
Fu said that while AI technologies have had a profound impact on some countries’ socioeconomic development, developing countries haven’t been in a position to fully access and profit from them.
As the worldwide digital divide widens, the resolution stressed “the necessity and urgency to narrow the disparities and assist developing countries in artificial intelligence capacity-building in order that they’ll not be further left behind.”
The resolution follows the adoption of the primary global resolution on AI in March, which was proposed by the US and supported by China.
The earlier bill focused on AI safety and human rights while Fu says the Chinese bill is “more focused on the capacity-building”.
The resolution calls for developed countries “to extend capacity-building cooperation, including policy exchanges, knowledge sharing activities and the transfer of technology.”
While the US voted in favor of the resolution, China doesn’t think it’s acting within the spirit of the bill.
Do what you say
The US has put several measures in place to decelerate China’s AI aspirations. Last August Biden’s executive order restricted US firms and individuals from investing in AI, computer chips, and quantum computing.
The US has also barred firms like NVIDIA from supplying advanced AI chips to Chinese firms. The geopolitical irony that almost all of those chips are made in Taiwan isn’t lost on China.
Ambassador Fu called on the US to act consistent with the resolution they supported by lifting these sanctions.
Fu said, “We are firmly against these sanctions…If persons are true to the content of this resolution, it says that it is crucial to foster [an] inclusive business environment. We don’t think that the US actions … [are] along that line.”
The democratization of AI and its advantages appears like an ideal idea, but it surely’s an concept that has to compete with internal economic interests and geopolitical challenges.
While the US and EU states bring anti-competition litigation against big tech firms, additionally they attempt to retain their AI hegemony.
For-profit firms like Google and the mislabeled OpenAI understandably need to retain and take advantage of their IP.
But the brand new resolution calls on countries to think about the “positive advantages of open-source software, open models and open data, amongst other methods and business models, in spreading the advantages of artificial intelligence.”
Is it likely that supporters of this resolution will have the option to transcend politics and industrial interests to unravel the developing world’s problems like poverty?
Or will rapidly accelerating AI development proceed to widen the gap between the haves and have-nots?
