Charter for a more ethical artificial intelligence

Debates related to the benefits/disadvantages of Artificial Intelligence are increasingly heated. It is obvious even to the most optimistic that things can get out of control very easily. Eight technology companies, including US IT giant Microsoft, signed a charter to "build a more ethical artificial intelligence" at a world forum organized by UNESCO in Slovenia. After the adoption, in November 2021, by more than 50 countries of the world's first rules on artificial intelligence (AI), "we are taking another important step by obtaining the same concrete commitment from large companies", said Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO . Such an alliance is "essential if we want to develop an artificial intelligence that serves the common good," she added. In addition to Microsoft, among the other signatories are LG AI Research - the research center of the South Korean conglomerate LG, the Chinese group Lenovo, the bank card company Mastercard, the American software group Salesforce and the Spanish telecommunications operator Telefonica. Through this document, all signatories commit "to fully assume their role in protecting human rights during the design, development, acquisition, sale and use of AI". Specifically, companies will have to implement "verification procedures" to assess risks and correct "harmful effects of artificial intelligence within a reasonable time frame." The agreement was signed at the congress center in Kranj, near the Slovenian capital Ljubljana, where the second UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) World Forum on this topic is being held. The announcement comes just days after European Union member states gave the green light to groundbreaking global legislation to regulate AI, following intense negotiations on the balance between innovation and safety. The appearance, at the end of 2022, of ChatGPT, developed by the Californian start-up OpenAI, capable of writing essays, poems and translations in seconds, and other systems capable of creating sounds or images, revealed to the general public the immense potential of AI. But there are also a number of risks: the dissemination of fake photos, which seem extremely authentic, which warn of the danger of manipulating public opinion.