Doha- Amid the escalation of warnings of misuse of artificial intelligence techniques, the work of the conference “Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights: Opportunities, Risks and Vision for a Better Future” started today, and the participants called for the necessity of developing binding national and international legislation that guarantees the safe and responsible use of this technology, and prevents its transformation into a tool that violates privacy, enhances discrimination, and undermines basic human rights.
A number of speakers in the opening sessions stressed the importance of bridging the legislative void surrounding the applications of artificial intelligence in the world, calling for the adoption of a clear international legal framework that balances the benefit of its technical advantages and reduce its social, economic and legal risks.
The conference will be held with the participation of more than 800 experts and officials from all over the world, organizing the National Human Rights Committee and in cooperation with local and international bodies that include the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, the National Cyber Security Agency, the United Nations Development Program, and the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Conference axes
The conference focuses on a number of main axes and topics, including:
- Foundations of artificial intelligence.
- Artificial intelligence and privacy.
- Bias and discrimination.
- Freedom of expression.
- Access to digital justice.
- Legal and moral frameworks.
- Artificial intelligence and security.
- Artificial and democratic intelligence.
- Artificial intelligence and the future of the media according to the human rights and risk approach.
- The transformations created by artificial intelligence in employment and job opportunities.
The head of the National Committee for Human Rights, Maryam bint Abdullah Al -Attiyah, said, at the opening, that the conference aims to explore opportunities and exchange experiences, experiences and best practices, and discuss and analyze the challenges and risks resulting from artificial intelligence, explaining the need for a deep understanding of its reality and future in recognition of its increasing impact on the actual enjoyment of human rights.
It warned of his unethical uses, which raise several fears, including exacerbation of bias and discrimination, deepening the digital gap, violating the right to privacy, and increasing unemployment rates resulting from job losses, and the serious effects of some systems that constitute a direct threat to the right to life.
Al -Attiyah pointed to the urgent need to adopt a human rights approach in all artificial intelligence systems to ensure transparency, control, evaluation, review and accountability, and to ensure the means of remedial in all cases of violations resulting from its uses.
For his part, Qatari Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Mohammed bin Ali Al -Mannai, said that artificial intelligence is no longer just a technical innovation used to improve services or raise efficiency, but rather has become a motor force that reshapes the features of life, and affects decisions that affect the essence of human dignity, explaining the importance of the conference as a global dialogue space “in which we share knowledge and exchange experiences and agree on clear principles that direct the use of artificial intelligence in a way that serves man First, they protect his dignity. “
He added, during his speech, that the increasing dependence on artificial intelligence techniques, such as predictive algorithms, automatic learning models, and systems that make decisions automatically, present major challenges that exceed the technical side only, “today we are facing a new reality in which the machine takes decisions that a person made, so it becomes necessary to provide organizational frameworks that ensure that the human interest remains at the forefront of priorities.”
Technological transformations
For his part, the head of the National Agency for Cyber Security, Abd al -Rahman bin Ali al -Farahid al -Maliki, said that the world is witnessing an unprecedented shift in relying on modern and emerging technology that has become an integral part of daily life, the most prominent of which is artificial intelligence, especially the Toulidi, which has demonstrated amazing capabilities and open broad horizons, but at the same time introducing real challenges to individuals and societies.
He explained that the State of Qatar has paid great attention to keeping pace with these technological transformations and facing the challenges associated with it with the third national development strategy and the national strategy for cybersecurity, as the focus was on the use of technology to enhance development while ensuring that it reduces its risks to provide a safe cycle space, indicating that it was one of the first countries to initiate the issuance of a law to protect privacy of personal data.
In a statement to Al -Jazeera Net, the director of the regional center of the Arab countries of the United Nations Development Program, Mary Kawar, said that there is a need for clear international standards that define the foundations of the use of artificial intelligence in a way that serves humanity, and can be discussed at the conference to come up with recommendations that can be submitted to the United Nations to make clear decisions in this regard.
In her opinion, the important issue for artificial intelligence is currently working not to cause discrimination and inequality, and therefore we must have a fair and comprehensive infrastructure between countries in general and within the countries themselves in particular, so that there is no discrimination between the city and the countryside, and thus create a state of unequal opportunities based on this modern technology. “
She emphasized that the Arab world still needs to include artificial intelligence in favor of improving services and human rights, praising the Qatari strategy in this framework, which determines the frameworks of using this technology.
Increasing risk
The Vice -Chairman of the National Committee for Human Rights, Mohamed Saif Al -Kuwari, told Al -Jazeera Net that the conference focuses on the relationship between artificial intelligence, modern technology and human rights, especially since there are studies and sounds that exceed the existence of violations of privacy and freedom of expression and discrimination as a result of this technology that is exploited in a “wrong” way.
Al -Kuwari continued, that the conference will discuss models that can be applied to preserve human rights from the disadvantages of using this technology, expecting that important recommendations will be issued in this regard that will be raised to the highest levels.
He stressed that laws and legislation must be enacts at the global level to protect human rights from the negative effects of modern technology “that sometimes reached to be a substitute of humans, which has lost their rights and living rights.”
In his intervention through video technology, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, said that despite the benefits of artificial intelligence in areas, such as health care, development and education, there are increasing risks that threaten human rights and basic freedoms, most notably collective monitoring, misleading information, error, images, fabricated videos, discrimination, bias and control of information, as well as economic, social and environmental effects.
Turk stressed the need to develop and enhance legal frameworks that guarantee the safety, transparency and accountability of artificial intelligence systems, block the digital gap and provide a comprehensive digital infrastructure, and to involve all groups of society – not only governments and companies – in its rule, and the need to be used in a way that enhances the values of global human rights.
In turn, the President of the Arab Parliament, Muhammad Ahmad al -Yamahi, stressed that the tremendous progress witnessed by the field of artificial intelligence carries with it unprecedented potential to achieve development, prosperity and the advancement of human life in various fields, but at the same time it raises moral and legal questions and challenges that affect the essence of the basic human rights, explaining that the bet today does not lie only in developing this technology but in how to use it and use it in use Safe, to protect societal values and basic human rights.
Al -Yamahi believes that the largest aspect of this responsibility is the responsibility of parliamentarians around the world, because the starting point in achieving the safe use of this technology is the presence of national legislation that regulates its uses, in line with the system of special values in each country, its development priorities, and the requirements of its national and societal security.
He explained that the Arab Parliament issued 3 years ago the first Arab law in the field of artificial intelligence in order to be guided by the Arab countries in the enactment of their relevant national legislation in order to ensure the safe and responsible use of this technology, stressing that the world is also urgently needed for a binding international legal framework that controls this vital field, and directs its uses towards humanitarian service and protecting human rights.