UN urges moratorium on AI tech that threatens human rights

The UN called Wednesday for a moratorium on artificial intelligence systems like facial recognition technology that threaten human rights until “guardrails” are in place against violations, reports AFP.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet warned that “AI technologies can have negative, even catastrophic effects if they are used without sufficient regard to how they affect people’s human rights.”

She called for assessments of how great a risk various AI technologies pose to things like rights to privacy and freedom of movement and of expression.

She said countries should ban or heavily regulate the ones that pose the greatest threats.

But while such assessments are under way, she said that “states should place moratoriums on the use of potentially high-risk technology”.

Presenting a fresh report on the issue, she pointed to the use of profiling and automated decision-making technologies.

She acknowledged that “the power of AI to serve people is undeniable.”

“But so is AI’s ability to feed human rights violations at an enormous scale with virtually no visibility,” she said.

“Action is needed now to put human rights guardrails on the use of AI, for the good of all of us.”