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STORY: UN / ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
TRT: 04:42
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / FRENCH / RUSSIAN / NATS
DATELINE: 19 DECEMBER 2024, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, United Nations headquarters
19 DECEMBER 2024, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, Antonio Guterres Anthony Blinken greeting each other and shaking hands
3. Wide shot, Security Council
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“Those that feel like technology is moving very fast must understand a simple fact:
Technology will never move as slowly as today.”
5. Wide shot, Security Council
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“Let’s be clear: the fate of humanity must never be left to the ‘black box’ of an algorithm. Humans must always retain control over decision-making functions – guided by international law, including international humanitarian and human rights laws, and ethical principles. Humanity’s hand created AI. Humanity’s hand must guide it forward.”
7. Wide shot, Security Council
8. SOUNDBITE (French) Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
"The next steps will be crucial – and our present choices will shape our future. Any delay in establishing international safeguards increases the risks – for all of us. I urge Member States to act swiftly to establish the International Scientific Panel on AI and to initiate the Global Dialogue on AI Governance – within the framework of the United Nations. I also reiterate my call to ban lethal autonomous weapons."
9. Wide shot, Security Council
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Yann LeCun, Chief AI Scientist, Meta and Jacob T. Schwartz Professor of Computer Science, Data Science, Natural Science and Electrical and Computer Engineering at New York University:
“Predictions of a flood of AI generated disinformation due to the availability of AI systems have clearly been overgrown. There is no evidence that current forms of AI present any existential risk or even a significant, significant, significant, sorry, significantly increased threats over traditional technology such as search engines and textbooks.”
11. Wide shot, Security Council
12.SOUNDBITE (English) Yann LeCun, Chief AI Scientist, Meta and Jacob T. Schwartz Professor of Computer Science, Data Science, Natural Science and Electrical and Computer Engineering at New York University:
“Current systems do not understand the real world, do not have consistent memory and cannot really reason and plan. They cannot learn new skills with the same speed and efficiency as humans or even animals.”
13. Wide shot, Security Council
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Yann LeCun, Chief AI Scientist, Meta and Jacob T. Schwartz Professor of Computer Science, Data Science, Natural Science and Electrical and Computer Engineering at New York University:
“There is no question that at some point in the future, AI systems will match and surpass human intellectual capabilities. They will be very different from current AI systems. They will be capable of understanding the physical world, to remember, to reason and plan. They may have some level of common sense. It will not happen tomorrow, probably over the next decade or two.”
15. Wide shot, Security Council
16. SOUNDBITE (English) Fei-Fei Li, Sequoia Professor in the Computer Science Department at Stanford University, Co-Director of Stanford’s Human-Centered AI Institute, Member of the Secretary-General’s Scientific Advisory Board:
“The benefits of AI should not be reserved for wealthy nations. It is our collective responsibility to ensure that everyone has equitable access to AI tools, training, and infrastructure. This is not just a matter of fairness—it is a matter of global stability.”
17. Wide shot, Security Council
18. SOUNDBITE (English) Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State, United States: “For all the progress, I think we all know, far more work remains to be done. Nations with leading tech sectors must do more to uphold security standards and prevent AI from being abused. International community needs to stand together against irresponsible misuses of AI systems. Today, state and nonstate actors are increasingly using these tools to influence, distort public opinion, to manipulate geopolitical narratives, to make offensive cyber operations more effective, and this is only going to get worse, as AI advances.
19. Wide shot, Security Council
20. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Vasily Nebenzya, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Russian Federation:
“In the words of President Putin, in the existing all-American world order there is only one rule that there are no rules. Mr. President, of course, the US’s ambitions to think about the fate of all of humanity in the age of the rapid development of AI are entirely understandable to us. At the same time, for the country that initiated today's discussion, it's important for them to understand that their previous approaches of imposing rules on others and at the same time refrain themselves from those rules, would be to repeat historic mistakes on the path towards the development of global cooperation.”
21. Wide shot, end of Security Council
Briefing the Security Council, the Secretary-General said technology is advancing at an unprecedented pace, emphasizing that “technology will never move as slowly as today.” Antonio Guterres called for urgent global safeguards to manage the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI.)
Guterres highlighted the risks of allowing AI to operate without oversight, stating, “The fate of humanity must never be left to the ‘black box’ of an algorithm. Humans must always retain control over decision-making functions – guided by international law, including international humanitarian and human rights laws, and ethical principles.
He urged Member States to act quickly to establish international frameworks: “The next steps will be crucial – and our present choices will shape our future. Any delay in establishing international safeguards increases the risks – for all of us. I urge Member States to act swiftly to establish the International Scientific Panel on AI and to initiate the Global Dialogue on AI Governance – within the framework of the United Nations.” He also reiterated his call to ban lethal autonomous weapons.
Yann LeCun, a professor at New York University and a leading expert in AI, questioned fears of existential risks from current AI systems, stating, “There is no evidence that current forms of AI present any existential risk or even significantly increased threats over traditional technology.” He also acknowledged that future systems could surpass human capabilities, predicting this might occur over the next few decades.
Stanford Professor Fei-Fei Li stressed the importance of equitable access to AI technologies, “The benefits of AI should not be reserved for wealthy nations. It is our collective responsibility to ensure that everyone has equitable access to AI tools, training, and infrastructure. This is not just a matter of fairness—it is a matter of global stability.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed the misuse of AI by state and non-state actors, emphasizing the need for stronger security standards: “Nations with leading tech sectors must do more to uphold security standards and prevent AI from being abused. Today, state and nonstate actors are increasingly using these tools to influence, distort public opinion, and manipulate geopolitical narratives.”
Russian Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya raised concerns about the role of global power dynamics in AI governance, referencing President Putin’s remarks: “In the existing all-American world order, there is only one rule, that there are no rules.”
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