At the G-7 summit, leaders called for international standards on artificial intelligence

In their joint statement on Saturday, leaders of the world’s richest democracies gathered for a G7 summit, they acknowledged that despite the rapid growth of artificial intelligence and immersive technologies such as metaverses, international rules governing their use and compliance “haven’t necessarily kept pace.”

They said while such new technologies present opportunities to enhance sustainability and innovation in various industries, their challenges must be considered along with the benefits.

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They wrote that new technologies should be governed in line with democratic values ​​- including fairness, accountability, transparency, protection from online abuse, and respect for privacy and human rights.

Specifically, G-7 leaders advocated the use of generative artificial intelligence, or the production of text, images, and other content that resembled human-made works. The popularization of ChatGPT has raised concerns about the ability of generative AI to generate human-like responses and train itself to improve its accuracy.

As democracies around the world face deepening polarization and disinformation, some experts warn that generative AI could exacerbate political division through machine-generated content and make it difficult for people to judge whether information is trustworthy or factual.

“We recognize the need to immediately assess the opportunities and challenges posed by generative AI, which are increasingly salient across countries and sectors,” the leaders wrote in the summit statement.

He also called on the leaders to establish technical standards for the development of “trustworthy” AI, adding that “the methods and policy tools to achieve the shared vision and goal of trustworthy AI may differ among G7 members.”

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The talks come at the summit as leaders chart their own courses in their countries on how to handle AI developments. The European Union is discussing legislation on regulating artificial intelligence. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was among the participants here.

White House officials also expressed hope that AI governance will be raised during the G7 to discuss emerging issues of potential concern.

During a session on the global economy on Friday, President Biden briefed his counterparts on a recent meeting that took place this month at the White House where top executives from companies developing artificial intelligence such as Google and Microsoft discussed the technology. He also provided an update on the work the US government is doing in balancing risks and opportunities in technology.

“Other G7 leaders have spoken out on this issue as well,” Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser, said at a news briefing on Saturday. “I think this topic is pretty much the concern of the leaders of all of these major advanced democratic market economies.”

He said there were different elements to the discussions at the summit, including what each country in their countries decides to pass laws and regulations on the technology. They also have to consider whether there is a global role.

“How do we come together in an international format to try to align methods effectively so that we deal with this incredibly fast-moving technology with these incredibly far-reaching implications?” “A good start,” he said, describing the discussion here.

The G7 leaders directed their countries’ top officials to work together on the issue and establish a “Hiroshima AI Process” to discuss generative AI and report back by the end of 2023.

“Leaders have tasked their teams with working together on the right format for the international discussion on norms and norms moving forward,” Sullivan said.