How can AI’s power be harnessed for good to benefit everyone?

Artificial intelligence brings a wealth of opportunities for innovation to help solve some of society’s most critical challenges. 

But the technology could also bring dangers such as misinformation, the development of weapons, and economic inequality. Getting regulation right is therefore crucial to ensure that AI is used for good. 

An international expert panel delved into these issues as part of a debate co-produced by CGTN and Euronews. 

The panel included Yi Zeng, professor of AI ethics and SDGs, at the Beijing Academy of Sciences, Dr Amr Awadallah, CEO and co-founder of the generative AI search platform Vectara, Srikant Chakravarti, co-founder and co-CEO of the AI news company Curio AI and Rose Luckin, Professor of Learner-Centered Design at UCL Knowledge Lab.

What are the benefits and fears of AI?

One of the ways AI can be used for good is analysis to help biodiversity, which can in turn also help humans. “I think this is only the beginning of how AI can be used for good,” said Yi Zeng, Professor of AI Ethics and SDGs, at the Beijing Academy of Sciences at a panel on AI organised by CGTN and Euronews. 

AI is also essential to education and healthcare in places that may not have the best systems. 

He warned that what concerns him is how AI could be used in warfare as there are concerns that the technology can find new ways to make chemical weapons.

“One of the things I’d like to see is how AI can prevent warfare,” he said.

“Technology is not the reason why we get problems, humans are if we use the technology in the wrong way,” he added. 

Getting regulation right

Governments around the world are trying to ensure that the technology is used in the right way through regulation. The European Union has set its rules in the EU AI ACT and the United States and China are drawing up their own regulation. 

On 24 September, the United Nations also published a report with a set of recommendations for AI, including an AI fund that will also allow developing nations to benefit from the technology and the creation of an international scientific panel on AI, which would issue an annual report on AI-related “capabilities, opportunities, risks and uncertainties”. 

However, getting the whole world to abide by one regulation comes with its challenges. 

“What may be good for one place may not be for another,” he told the panel. 

Chakravarti believes the best way of getting regulation is to regulate applications, explaining that, for instance, health AI technology would be regulated via health standards, which already have more of a global consensus.   

For him, the essential is to increase infrastructure, such as data centres, so that less developed countries can build their own AI technologies. 

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However, Zeng made a case for global regulation, arguing that “you cannot agree on everything but you can agree on fundamental principles.” 

“We have to be cautious of long-term challenges because later is too late,” he warned. 

Big Tech monopoly and open source technology

AI’s economic and social benefits are geographically concentrated, primarily in the Global North.

Big US Tech companies are running the AI show, with Microsoft investing massively in ChatGPT maker OpenAI, while Google, Meta and Elon Musk are launching their own generative AI platforms. 

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AI could contribute up to $15.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030, according to PwC. The 2023 report found that while all regions of the global economy stand to benefit from AI, North America and China will see the largest GDP gains.

The worry is that more developed countries will create these technologies, meaning they will set the rules for the world and widen the global economic divide. 

But the panel agreed open source AI could be a solution for a fairer system.

Open source AI means a model can be modified for any purpose, including changing its output and sharing the system for others to use with or without modifications.

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This would allow anyone to modify and see the model and create their own AI systems. 

Awadallah said a few years ago he would have been concerned as to who controls AI. But he said he is optimistic as “open source AI prevents one or two companies from controlling the AI systems.”

Rose Luckin, Professor of Learner-Centered Design at UCL Knowledge Lab said open source AI is a “huge opportunity for less developed countries to leap frog. I think there is a real opportunity, but countries need understanding [of the technology].” 

“I think we’ll see something really innovative and could come from a smaller country that thinks differently,” she added.

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