Alarm over advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) must not obscure the “grave” harm already being done by digital platforms rife with misinformation, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Monday, as he proposed an international code of conduct.
Rapidly developing AI tools, including chatbots, image generators and voice cloning technology, have sparked global concern over their ability to disseminate falsehoods.
Guterres said he endorsed the idea of creating an AI watchdog body similar to the International Atomic Energy Agency, but added that “only member states can create it, not the secretariat of the United Nations.”
Photo: Reuters
While alarm bells over AI were “deafening,” they must not “distract us from the damage digital technology is already doing to our world,” he said.
“The proliferation of hate and lies in the digital space is causing grave global harm now,” Guterres told a news conference while presenting a policy brief on the subject. “It is fueling conflict, death and destruction now. It is threatening democracy and human rights now.”
Guterres said that a “United Nations code of conduct for information integrity on digital platforms” was being developed ahead of the UN’s “Summit of the Future” slated for next year.
His policy brief, which would feed the code of conduct, includes a slew of proposals, including that advertisers implicated in monetizing harmful content take full responsibility for their spending.
“Disinformation and hate should not generate maximum exposure and massive profits,” Guterres said.
While unleashing social and cultural transformation globally, online platforms have also “exposed a darker side,” he added.
“The ability to disseminate large-scale disinformation to undermine scientifically established facts poses an existential risk to humanity,” he said, referring to their risk to democratic institutions and human rights.
The code of conduct should be based on a commitment to information integrity, human rights and support for independent media, he said.
“We must learn from the mistakes of the past. Digital platforms were launched into the world without sufficient awareness or assessment of the potential damage to societies and individuals,” Guterres said. “The era of Silicon Valley’s ‘move fast and break things’ philosophy must be brought to a close.”
‘TAIWAN-FRIENDLY’: The last time the Web site fact sheet removed the lines on the US not supporting Taiwanese independence was during the Biden administration in 2022 The US Department of State has removed a statement on its Web site that it does not support Taiwanese independence, among changes that the Taiwanese government praised yesterday as supporting Taiwan. The Taiwan-US relations fact sheet, produced by the department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, previously stated that the US opposes “any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side; we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.” In the updated version published on Thursday, the line stating that the US does not support Taiwanese independence had been removed. The updated
‘CORRECT IDENTIFICATION’: Beginning in May, Taiwanese married to Japanese can register their home country as Taiwan in their spouse’s family record, ‘Nikkei Asia’ said The government yesterday thanked Japan for revising rules that would allow Taiwanese nationals married to Japanese citizens to list their home country as “Taiwan” in the official family record database. At present, Taiwanese have to select “China.” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said the new rule, set to be implemented in May, would now “correctly” identify Taiwanese in Japan and help protect their rights, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The statement was released after Nikkei Asia reported the new policy earlier yesterday. The name and nationality of a non-Japanese person marrying a Japanese national is added to the
AT RISK: The council reiterated that people should seriously consider the necessity of visiting China, after Beijing passed 22 guidelines to punish ‘die-hard’ separatists The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has since Jan. 1 last year received 65 petitions regarding Taiwanese who were interrogated or detained in China, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. Fifty-two either went missing or had their personal freedoms restricted, with some put in criminal detention, while 13 were interrogated and temporarily detained, he said in a radio interview. On June 21 last year, China announced 22 guidelines to punish “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists,” allowing Chinese courts to try people in absentia. The guidelines are uncivilized and inhumane, allowing Beijing to seize assets and issue the death penalty, with no regard for potential
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
RSS