UNGA adopts India-backed landmark resolution on AI safeguards

United Nations, Mar 22: Setting aside their polarising differences, all 193 countries joined together to adopt a landmark resolution backed by India, aiming to keep the world safe from the excesses of artificial intelligence (AI).

The UN General Assembly's resolution passed unanimously on Thursday stressed "the urgency of achieving global consensus on safe, secure and trustworthy artificial intelligence systems" in the face of "potential risk for accidents and compound threats from malicious actors".

India's Permanent Representative Ruchira Kamboj said in a post on X after its adoption, "Happy to co-sponsor the Resolution on AI."

The resolution was proposed by the US and the State Department's factsheet about it said it builds on several initiatives, including the Global Partnership on AI (GPAI) Summit hosted by India in December.

The resolution emphasises the role of AI in promoting global development while making sure it protects private data and human rights and is tested for vulnerabilities before deployment.

The resolution, which calls for the development of regulations for "safe, secure and trustworthy" AI systems, also acknowledges the importance of domestic priorities and national and "subnational" policies in framing them.

The unanimity at the UN stresses the fears over AI's potential to disrupt politics and society through deepfakes and spreading misinformation, and its more sinister capabilities in warfare, development of weapons and disrupting economies.

"In a moment in which the world is seeming to be agreeing on little, perhaps the most quietly radical aspect of this resolution is the wide consensus forged in the name of advancing progress," US Permanent Representative Linda Thomas-Greenfield said of its significance.

She added that she worked with more than 120 countries for several months to achieve the consensus and had put the resolution's draft through several edits.

For wider acceptance and tamping down dissent, the resolution highlights AI's role in helping developing nations, especially the poorest, and calls for bridging the digital divide among and within nations that AI could widen.