Professor Dame Wendy Hall is leading calls for global governance of artificial intelligence (AI) ahead of a new United Nations (UN) report.
Dame Wendy leads the Data, Health and Society theme at our NIHR Southampton Biomedical Research Centre. Her warning came ahead of the release of a new UN report on the future of AI.
Advising on global AI governance
Last year, Dame Wendy became the only British expert to be appointed to the UN’s high-level advisory body on AI. She joined 31 other experts to analyse the international governance of AI.
Dame Wendy is a Regius Professor of Computer Science at the University of Southampton and Director of its Web Science Institute.
Her comments were part of a talk she gave ahead of the UN body’s release of the Governing AI for Humanity report about the future of AI, to which she was a key contributor.
“We are already seeing the impact of AI breakthroughs across health, energy controls, food production, education,” she said.
“Artificial intelligence must be allowed to develop for the good of humanity – but, without governance, it has potential to evolve in ways that would be harmful to society.
“At the very least, we hope this report will stimulate meaningful conversations and debate about global governance.”
Minimising and mitigating risks
The report includes a series of recommendations about the development of AI globally. These aim to help ‘reap the benefits of AI’, while ‘minimising and mitigating the risks.’
Their recommendations include:
establishing a global dialogue among the major nations developing AI
creating an AI standards charter that establishes regulation
launching a fund to support countries in the global south to benefit from AI
creating an Office for AI – born out of the UN’s AI advisory body
Dame Wendy has been at the forefront of computer science development for 40 years from Southampton. She warned some countries risk being left behind if the tech remains unregulated.
“Current global efforts to establish AI governance are insufficient,” she said.
“We desperately need a global approach that will address the challenges of AI and ensure that it benefits everyone - not just the few nations leading its development.”
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