AI is moving too quickly for many workers, companies, and countries to keep up with. In the face of rapid evolution, global organizations are trying to stay current—but the U.N. isn’t keen on creating an international agency to regulate the technology.
At Fortune’s Global Forum this Monday in New York City, the co-chair of the U.N.’s AI Advisory Body, Carme Artigas, said the organization has been developing guiding principles for global use of AI, including a proposed AI-centric scientific panel and global fund.
But one thing Artigas isn’t pushing for is the creation of a formal international AI agency. She says that there are already many groups, international treaties, and guidelines that shape how U.N. members should approach AI. And creating a new body would require a huge reorganization.
“We don’t need to invent something about the implications of AI in defense, because we already have the Geneva Convention,” she says. “We want to talk about intellectual property, we already have WIPO [the World Intellectual Property Organization].”
Artigas recognizes, however, that there is a huge gap across different parts of the world when it comes to AI implementation—which could exacerbate global inequities if it isn’t bridged.
“It’s affecting fundamental values and principles of human rights of the present,” she says.