Over 100 Countries Back UN-Linked AI Pact Pushing Censorship and Surveillance

by Didi Rankovic | Reclaim The Net

The AI Action Summit, held in Paris this week, resulted in 60 signatories supporting a statement on “inclusive and sustainable artificial intelligence for people and the planet.”

Among the dozens of countries are the European Union and the African Union Commission, along with Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany – but not the US or the UK.

The gathering in France brought together representatives of governments, international organizations, civil society, academics, researchers, and, the private sector.

The declaration commits to a number of UN initiatives, such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), that are routinely criticized for ushering in censorship and surveillance. Some of the other international initiatives cited are the UNESCO Recommendation on Ethics of AI and a number of UN General Assembly resolutions.

But the document signed in Paris talks about reinforced international cooperation and better coordinated international governance as main priorities, while also worryingly (given how “information integrity” is often used as a “code word” for censorship) pledging to “keep addressing the risks of AI to information integrity.” Read Full Article >