The UN calls on governments and companies to "govern" AI

BarcelonaThe United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, has called on states and companies to govern artificial intelligence (AI), a technology that offers many benefits to society but which, in his view, also puts human rights at risk. "All human rights are at risk," he asserted.

Türk has called for urgent and meaningful measures to address the unprecedented risks of AI in an open letter addressing the states and companies responsible for AI with the goal of "charting a path of action to govern frontier AI [this term refers to the most advanced AI models], grounded in international human rights law." "The real challenge today is how to match the pace of effective AI governance with the pace of its rapid development," he stated, and insisted that "urgent measures adapted to the unprecedented risks posed by frontier AI" are necessary.

For his part, the President of the United States, Donald Trump, who the day before had prioritized winning the AI race against China, denounced this Monday that there is "a sick conspiracy" against this technology. He also said that AI does not need any more control than the fact that he is the country's president. "The only control or safety mechanism that AI needs is a strong and intelligent president (with a high IQ!), and the United States has plenty of those!", he wrote on the Truth Social network, amidst the controversy unleashed by warnings from industry leaders about the growing risks of this technology.