Tánaiste warns of limited window to get 'on top of' AI threat

Tánaiste Micheál Martin said all countries must now work together on the emerging threat from the technology.

We now have a limited window to "get on top of" the threat Artificial Intelligence (AI) has in controlling us, Tánaiste Michéal Martin has warned.

It comes after UN secretary general Antonio Guterres said AI may now lead the world into "more danger than we can control".

Addressing world leaders in New York, Mr Guterres said the establishment of a new global organisation, similar to the International Atomic Energy Agency, must now be considered to address both the benefits and the dangers.

“When I mentioned artificial intelligence in my General Assembly speech in 2017, only two other leaders even uttered the term. 

"Now AI is on everyone’s lips — a subject of both awe and fear," Mr Guterres said.

"Even some of those who developed generative AI are calling for greater regulation,” he said.

“But many of the dangers of digital technology are not looming on the horizon. They are here.”

UN secretary general Antonio Guterres said AI may now lead the world into 'more danger than we can control'.

Mr Martin, who is also attending UN week in New York, said all countries must now work together on the emerging threat from the technology.

"In respect of AI, no nation can meet that challenge on its own, it's very, very important that we would be part of that international collaboration on making sure that AI serves human beings as opposed to controlling human beings into the future."

Welcoming any global effort, he said AI provides both "potential" and "peril", adding that there now an opportunity to "get on top" of AI.

US president Joe Biden also warned the UN General Assembly that the world needs to make sure it governs AI and "not the other way around".

He said any new technology are used as "tools of opportunity, not as weapons of oppression"

"Emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence hold both enormous potential and enormous peril.

"Together with leaders around the world, the United States is working to strengthen rules and policies so AI technologies are safe before they're released to the public. To make sure we govern this technology, not the other way around, having it govern us.

Mr Biden said he is committed to working with the UN, international bodies, and directly with leaders around the world, "including our competitors", to ensure "we harness the power of artificial intelligence for good, while protecting our citizens from its most profound risk".

He added: "It's going to take all of us. I've been working on this for a while."

Turning to criticisms of the UN made by President Michael D Higgins, who said the organisation is "losing credibility”, Mr Martin said many of the issues lie with individual countries and not the UN as a whole.

"Millions and millions of people around the world would be destitute, would be very much the poorer without the United Nations and without agencies of the United Nations."

However, he said the security council does need reform to address a "paralysis and gridlock" within it.

Asked whether the President's intervention was appropriate, Mr Martin said he had not seen the comments, but added: 

"The President is passionate about global affairs and has been passionate about global hunger and he has led well, in respect of these issues."