The United Nations Office at Geneva
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UN Geneva Press Briefing - 12 March 2024
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49:25
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MP4
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2.9 GB
UN GENEVA PRESS BRIEFING
12 March 2024
Secretary-General’s Envoy on Technology
Amandeep Singh Gill, Secretary-General's Envoy on Technology, stated that he was in Geneva for a meeting of the 39-member Advisory Board on Artificial Intelligence, which was now meeting in person for the second time. An interim report had been presented at the end of 2023, and the current meeting allowed the Advisory Body to deepen its considerations and analysis of the AI risks and challenges, and also to discuss what kind of international governance was needed to address the challenges and seize the opportunities. In the interim report, the Advisory Board had presented some guiding principles for international governance, in which it had emphasized the importance of inclusion and public interest. The report had also stressed the significance on building upon the UN Charter and other shared international norms rather than starting from scratch. AI governance ought to perform several functions, including horizon scanning, building consensus, interoperability, and mediating standards. Mr. Gill informed that this week the Advisory Board was meeting with specialized UN agencies, including the ILO and the WHO.
Replying to questions from the media, Mr. Gill said that the Board had members from all over the world who were steeped into the issue. In a short span of time of only 2.5 months, the members had achieved an agreement on several important issues, as presented in the interim report. Everyone agreed that AI was a powerful technology, and continuing business as usual was not an option. In the context of the Summit of the Future, a global digital compact was being negotiated, reminded Mr. Gill. The notion of privacy ought to extend to mental privacy, he said in a response to another question. Private sector, which was leading innovation in this area, had to be brought on board. Mr. Gill said that monitoring and analysis had to continue on a regular basis, given the constantly evolving nature of AI. On the issue of language barriers and the predominance of English, Mr. Gill said that indeed most AI models were based on the English language and acknowledged the challenge of maintaining linguistic and cultural diversity. In the Advisory Body, there was a lot of emphasis on capacity building, and it was hoped that there would be concrete recommendations to help prevent the expansion of the existing digital divide. Answering a final question on the composition of the Advisory Body, Mr. Gill said that 1,800 candidates had applied to be on the Body, of whom 39 had been selected from 33 countries and five regions of the world. The Body included both industry representatives and human rights experts. A consultative network of more than 120 experts had also been created, he informed; they should help address any gaps that might exist within the Advisory Body.
Human Rights Council
Pascal Sim, for the Human Rights Council (HRC), informed that this morning the Council was holding its first dialogue with Ben Saul, new Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism. In the afternoon, the Council would hold an interactive dialogue with Mary Lawlor, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, and an interactive dialogue with Ana Brian Nougrères, Special Rapporteur on the right to privacy. The following day, the focus would be on children’s rights, specifically violence against children and children in armed conflict. At 5 pm, the High Commissioner would present his report on the impact of climate change on the realization of human rights. On 14 March, the Council would hold a full-day panel discussion on rights of the child.
Humanitarian aid for Gaza
Responding to questions, Jens Laerke, for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said that the UN had not been involved in the planning of organizing the ship which had departed from Larnaca, Cyprus, to Gaza. Any food and other aid that would come into Gaza were desperately needed, and all efforts were appreciated. However, stressed Mr. Laerke, neither sea nor air deliveries could make up for overland access and safe, secure, and regular deliveries. Any and all entry points into Gaza should be looked at. While the UN had a large, coordinated operation in and around Gaza, there were other humanitarian actors, acknowledged Mr. Laerke.
Announcements
Thomas Croll-Knight, for the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), reminded that the Regional Forum on Sustainable Development would take place at the Palais des Nations on 13 and 14 March. The objective was to take stock on the progress made towards SDGs in the UNECE region. The Forum would be informed by the 2024 status report on SDGs progress in Europe, North America & Central Asia which warned that sustainable development is slowing (only 20 of 117 measurable SDG targets were on track) and in preparation for the Summit of the Future
He also informed that the next Global Methane Forum would bring together over 1,000 global thought and industry leaders in Geneva from 18 to 21 March to promote replicable methane mitigation successes and mobilize action to continue making progress toward addressing methane. The Forum would be hosted by the Global Methane Initiative and UNECE in partnership with the Global Methane Hub and the Climate and Clean Air Coalition. Actions to cut emissions now would pay off in mid-term; half of those actions were in the fossil fuel sector, reminded Mr. Croll-Knight. Targeted measures included venting and flaring in gas and oil operations. Methane had been responsible for 30 percent of warming since the Industrial Revolution, just after CO2.
Zeina Awad, for the International Labour Organization (ILO), informed about ILO’s upcoming report on stolen wages due to illegal forced labour. The report is “Profits and Poverty: The Economics of Forced Labour” would be presented on 19 March, during a press briefing that day. Presenters would be Federico Blanco, ILO Senior Researcher, and Zeina Awad, Chief of News and Multimedia. The report would be available under embargo as of 15 March. This global report would reveal the latest figures for forced labour and forced sexual exploitation, including estimated value of stolen wages due to forced labour.
Rolando Gómez, for the for the United Nations Information Service, said that on 19 March at 2 pm, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) would present its State of Global Climate 2023 report at a press conference. Speakers would be Celeste Saulo, WMO Secretary-General, and Omar Baddour, Chief of Climate Monitoring.
Today at 1 pm, Ben Saul, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, would present his vision and priorities at a press conference.
On 15 March at 9 am, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine would hold a press conference, before presenting its comprehensive report to the Council.
On 18 March at 1 pm, the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Islamic Republic of Iran would present its findings at a press conference.
The Human Rights Committee would this morning conclude its consideration of the second periodic report of Indonesia. This afternoon, it would start its review of the eighth periodic report of the United Kingdom.
The Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities would this morning conclude its consideration of the combined second and third periodic report of Sweden. This afternoon, it would start its review of the combined second and third periodic report of Azerbaijan.
The Conference on Disarmament was convening a plenary meeting this morning.
Teleprompter
[Other language spoken]
Thank you for joining us here at the UN office at Geneva for this press briefing on the 12th of March.
And for those of you observing Ramadan, Ramadan Mubarak, we have a slight change to the schedule.
We had initially thought to have Mr Amandeep Gill, Secretary General's envoy on technology, to join you at the beginning.
He's going to join us a bit later, closer to 11:00.
So if you could stay for that, that would be appreciated.
We'll start, therefore, immediately with Pascal SIM from the Human Rights Council for an update on the ongoing session.
[Other language spoken]
Thank you, Rolando.
Good morning, everyone.
The United Nations Human Rights Council is holding dialogues with three special rapporteurs today.
It is currently having its first meeting with Ben Sowell, the first the new special Rapporteur on counterterrorism and human rights, who will present his vision and priorities for the mandate.
He was appointed by the Council last October.
Mr Sowell is professor of law at the University of Sydney in Australia.
He will also present the reports from his predecessor, Finola Ania Lane, about a visit to Bosnia, Azegovina, N Macedonia and Germany.
And Mr Sole will also give his first press conference in his capacity as Special Rapporteur in this room today at 1:00 PM.
This afternoon at 2:30 PM, the Council will debate with Mary Lola, the Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders, on the reports focusing on challenges faced by child and youth human rights defenders, as well as on the recent visits to Tajikistan and Georgia.
The Council will then hear from Anna Brian Nugreya, the Special Rapporteur on the rights to privacy, who will present a reports on legal safeguards for personal data protection and privacy in the digital age, as well as on their recent visit to Lithuania.
And just to flag that, on Wednesday around 5:00 PM, the **** Commissioner Volcker Turk will present his reports, his reports, sorry, on measures for minimising the adverse impact of climate change on the full realisation of the right to food.
The report is available online and this week the focus of the Human Rights Council is on children's rights.
On Wednesday we will hear from 2 special representative of the Secretary General who will present their latest report.
First from Najat Mahajid, whose mandate focuses on violence against children, and then from Virginia Gamba, who addresses the issue of children in armed conflict.
And on Thursday, the Council will hold a full day panel discussion on the rights of the child that will be divided into two parts.
One in the morning focusing on the barriers children encounter when it comes to inclusive social protection.
It will feature the participation of Deputy **** Commissioner Nada Anna Schiff and representative from WHO and UNICEF.
Second part of the panel will take place in the afternoon on the theme of child rights men streaming in the United Nation on or how to strengthen a child right based approach across all three pillars of the UN, human rights, peace and security and development.
**** Commissioner Walker Turk will deliver a video message and we will have the participation of representative from UNFPA, from the fact finding mission on the Islamic Republic of Iran and from the Committee on the Rights of the Child.
That's it for me, thank you Pascal.
Another busy day at the Council.
Do we have questions for Pascal?
They're online or here in the room.
[Other language spoken]
I don't see that's the case.
So thank you once again and good luck.
OK, we just have announcement today.
I should mention we do have some briefers online.
And once again, for those of you coming in a little later, Amandeep Gill, the Secretary General of the Envoy and Technology will hopefully join us around 11:00.
He's currently chairing an advisory group meeting on AI, which is taking place this week up until tomorrow, but he'll hopefully be here soon.
I'll now turn to Thomas Kroll Knight of the UNECE, who has an announcement on Global Methane Forum taking place next week.
[Other language spoken]
Good morning, everybody.
Before starting, just a reminder that this week we have the regional forum on sustainable development for the UNECE region taking place 13 and 14 March.
So tomorrow and Thursday.
Now that is the UN platform to take stock of SD GS progress in Europe, North America and Central Asia happening every year.
And just to remind you that in the last SDG report 2024 for the region, we noticed, we noted that only 17, excuse me, 17% of the measurable SDG targets are on track in the region for 2030.
So clearly a lot of progress to make and and that's a platform for governments, civil society, UN organisations to come together to share solutions for that.
So on to this morning's main announcement next week, the Global Methane Forum taking place here in the belly 18 to 21 of March.
So this is an occasion to convene governments, industry and partners here to promote replicable methane emissions reductions.
Now there are strategies that can enable those reductions to take place.
Many of them are cost effective and it's considered that targeted action on methane is absolutely necessary to reduce global warming to 1.5 by mid century, the goals of the Paris Agreement.
So this is the premier global meeting on methane reductions, expected to attract some 1000 participants from over 100 countries, convened by UNECE and the Global Methane Initiative in partnership with the Global Methane Hub and the UNEP convened Climate and Clean Air Coalition.
Why do we need action on methane?
So methane is a very powerful greenhouse gas with a warming effect 80 times greater than that of CO2 over a 20 year timeframe, which means that action to cut emissions now pays off in the near term.
As I mentioned, readily available measures exist, half of which are in the fossil fuel sector and they are needed to reduce methane emissions by 30% if they're fully implemented.
So hand in hand with decarbonisation of our energy systems, targeted measures are deemed necessary such as by eliminating venting and flaring in, in gas and, and oil operations.
And that is considered absolutely needed to stop us from crossing irreversible climate tipping points.
Now methane is responsible for 30% of warming since the industrial revolution, the second largest contributor to warming after Co, 235% of oil and gas emissions and 10% of coal mine emissions can be avoided at no cost.
So this is the focus of what we're, this is the context.
There are solutions available.
This comes at a critical time.
You may have seen the news last week about a new satellite being launched that will improve emissions measurement, making that publicly available.
Indeed, there is rapid progress in emissions measurement.
There is also rising political commitment and the the Global Methane Pledge, which you may be aware of that was launched at COP 26, now has 157 countries on board and that's aiming to reduce methane emissions at least 30% from 2020 levels by 2030.
So we have the measurement improving fast, political momentum growing fast too.
This forum is all about practical measures, sharing solutions that have delivered results and scaling those up there.
In terms of participation, we have, we have government representatives from quite a number of countries from around the world, a lot of industry present international partners.
You've all received the advisory and briefing notes on this.
So please do get in touch with myself or Jean Rodriguez for any interview requests.
We'll be happy to facilitate that.
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
Very comprehensive and important information shared with us.
Questions for Thomas.
OK, I don't see that's the case.
So thank you once again for joining us here.
Well, now shift to ILO.
We have Zaina Awad on the line from the International Labour Organisation, who is going to flag an upcoming report from the ILO on stolen wages due to illegal forced labour.
Zaina, I'm sorry, actually, before we before we turn to Zaina, I think Yuri has a question.
I'm not sure if that's for Thomas Yuri.
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
It was for Zaina.
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
Jumping the gun.
OK, let's, let's hear from Zaina first and then we'll we'll go to you afterwards.
[Other language spoken]
Thank you very much and good morning colleagues.
Next Tuesday, the 19th of March, we will be releasing our Profits and Poverty, the Economics of Forced Labour report from the ILO.
It will be presented by my colleague Federico Blanco, who is a senior research Officer and myself during the regular press Pele press briefing time.
However, the report will be available under embargo as of Friday.
We will be looking at the total value in stolen wages of forced labour in the world and we will be comparing the current figures with figures from a decade ago, which is 2014.
We will be looking at both forced labour and industry sectors as well as forced sexual exploitation and we'll be breaking it down.
It's a global study, so it's not country by country.
It's a global study that we'll be looking at different regions, our regions being the Arab states, Asia and the Pacific, Africa, Europe and Central Asia as well as the Americas.
And we'll be obviously present to take questions.
And if you would like to put in a bid for an interview, also happy to to take that on board as well as potentially sharing the the report under embargo.
And it promises to be a very interesting yet sad read when it comes out.
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
We have we do have a question for you.
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
I wasn't able to unmute myself.
Yeah, if you can do that.
Catherine.
Question for Zena as well.
Francois.
Catherine.
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
Good morning Zena, nice to see you.
My question is maybe I missed it the the info, but you said that there will be a briefing on the 19 Tuesday.
Is it in the morning because morning we have the briefing and in the afternoon we already have a briefing with WFMO if I'm not mistaken at 2:00.
Yes, it's it's in the going to be in the morning as far as I understand and have communicated.
OK, thanks for clarifying that Saying that we have a question also from well Kat, did you have a follow up?
Go ahead, Catherine.
Yes, I did not catch the time because we have the briefing at 10:30.
So when do you plan to have the ILO briefing?
What we're going to, we will present it within the Pele briefing.
No, I mean this is not, this is not good.
I mean, we hate that because in order for for journalists to to have time enough to ask you all the questions related to the report, it it would be really appreciated to to make to organise a briefing apart.
Yeah, Catherine, maybe we Sena and we can discuss this with Sena and see if you try to find A to deconflict this and try to find the optimum time for this.
But maybe Sena, we can discuss with you afterwards.
Well noted, Well noted.
Catherine Maya question for Sena.
Maya, view the UN brief Yes, thank you very much for taking my question.
The International Labour Organisation yesterday organised an event that was quite good because for the first time I've seen an UN agency take really the lead in terms of discussing the impacts of artificial intelligence in the on the future of work.
So is your report that you are informing us about, we will address some of that issue too in terms of wage theft, because we have copyright wage, copyright theft right now for content creators, for journalists being debated in this area of AI in its impacts.
Any, anything you can advance to us in terms of the impacts of AI also on wage theft?
Thank you for the question, Maya.
This particular report is focusing specifically on forced labour.
Your point is obviously well taken and you're absolutely right that there's a whole area of work, as you've identified that has to do that's related to to AI.
This particular one, however, is focusing on, as I said, forced labour, both in terms of labour in different industries and sectors, both public organisations as well as private enterprise as well as sexual exploitation.
[Other language spoken]
Thanks very much for adding that Zena.
Do we have further questions for Zena?
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
Thank you very much.
Follow up, yes, in terms of can you also give us a little glimpse of what's on the works in terms of artificial intelligence debates and discussions?
Are they going to be increasing in, in the coming months and, and can you perhaps give us some preview of what's happening in terms of particularly what's when it touches upon the work of journalists?
And thank you for the follow up.
Well, the short answer is yes, there'll be more work around AI and labour because it's a, it's an important area of, of research and one obviously the IO mandate puts in a position to lead on in terms of what specifically is coming out.
I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to to confirm at the moment whether specifically it has to do with, with, you know, in this case, the journalism and media as a profession.
I'd be very happy to get back to you.
However, after I checked with our technical colleagues who lead on that area to see if indeed there is something coming coming out in that particular area.
But you can expect to see more on on the impact of digitization and AI on particularly when it comes to to labour markets.
[Other language spoken]
Thanks in advance, Zena, for that information.
Any final questions for Sena?
No, I don't see as the case.
I thank you once again for joining us, Sena, at this press briefing.
So once again, we'll wait.
[Other language spoken]
And I think Mr Gill is a rather punctual man, so he should be here at 11:00.
My colleague just went to collect him.
In the meantime, what I can do is offer just a couple of announcements on our behalf from Eunice.
And then if there are questions, we do have a few colleagues online who are connected and and in the room.
But just to mention that in terms of the meetings taking place here in Geneva, we have the Human Rights Committee concluding this morning it's consideration of its second report on Indonesia, and this afternoon it'll start its report of the 8th periodic report of the United Kingdom.
That's a Human Rights Committee.
Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
This morning is concluding its consideration of the combined second and third period reports of Sweden, and this afternoon it will start its review of the combined second and third report of Azerbaijan.
Conference on Disarmament is also a meeting, and it's a plenary session this morning, press conferences, quite a few to announce, starting with one taking place today at 1:00 PM in this room with a special rapporteur on the promotion, protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism.
That's Ben Saul, as as Pascal mentioned.
So that's 1:00 PM in this room.
It's Friday, the 15th of March at 9:00 AM.
So before the briefing, we have the Independent International Commissioner of Inquiry on Ukraine who will present to you their comprehensive report to the council that is being presented that day.
So that's Eric Mosay, the chair of the Commission, Pablo de Grief and Verinda Grover, the commissioners for this three person Commission this Friday at 9:00 AM, turning next week to Monday, the 18th of March at 1:00 PM to put on your calendars the Inter Independent International Fact Finding Mission on the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The three members will be here to brief you.
[Other language spoken]
They are presenting their first written report to the council.
So it's Sarah Hossein, Shaheen, Shardar Ali and Vivian Kristevic, the three members who will be here to brief you.
And finally, Tuesday the 19th at 2:00 PM, we have the World Meteorological Organisation.
The head of the World Meteorological Organisation, Secretary General Celeste Salo, will be here with a colleague, Omar Badour, Chief of Climate Monitoring, to present their state of the global climate for 2023.
So that's Tuesday the 19th at 2:00 PM.
And that is it.
From me, I think maybe Ben, you had your hand up first, I think.
Christophe.
Oh, yes.
I was wondering since we have to wait for the the tech envoy, it would have been the best time for Jens to jump on the podium so that we could harass him with our questions.
But he disappeared.
He's avoiding the harassment.
So he's he may be back.
I think he's maybe lurking the hallway.
So let's wait a minute for for Jens Christophe.
Who is that pertaining to?
It wasn't to her Asians.
It was actually to ask Jennifer a question on Rifat al-Assad.
On Rifat al-Assad, the Ministry of Justice, Swiss Ministry of Justice this morning announced that they want to put Rifat al-Assad on trial for human rights violations.
So I was just wondering if Jennifer had the comment from the OK, I haven't, I haven't seen that report, of course.
But I think maybe that question is best directed to our colleagues at the Office for the **** Commissioner of Human Rights or maybe if Jennifer has something.
OK, back to the Swiss indeed, please.
Yeah, if you can do that.
Obviously this is a sovereign decision, but in terms of overall human rights comments, obviously that's something for the human rights colleagues.
Francois, we have, he's coming UK, so our guest will be here soon.
If there are any other questions for me, perhaps Maya Online, go ahead.
Oh yes, I was going to say, is there a way perhaps that we could have a separate units briefing dedicated to new and emerging technologies and UN agencies because big technology companies have more sway than many governments at the UN at the present.
Perhaps we could have a separate one every Wednesday where we would just look into all the issues.
[Other language spoken]
I know you have to put this to vote to to so many people, but it perhaps it's a good idea that the time has arrived that we have a dedicated press briefing.
Just like in New York, there is a Daily Press briefing to find the data at the UNICE in Geneva.
We should be able to have a Daily Press briefing and certainly one that is dedicated to new and emerging technologies and the impact they have in the work of the UN, in the work of UN agencies, as well as have guests, experts from the technology companies that can help explain what they do.
Thank you, Maria, thank you for the suggestion.
And just on cue, Mr Mr Gill is here.
Of course, these are important suggestions and something we could take to our colleagues.
Of course, it requires some servicing, but indeed, we could consider this as maybe a regular feature down the line.
But on that note, Mr Mr Gill, thank you very much for joining us here.
Thank you for stepping away from the advisory boarding.
I know you have a very busy schedule, but Mr Gill, as you know, is the Secretary General's Envoy on Technology was appointed October 2022 and now he sits on this Advisory Board.
And AI, you want to take some time to, just to meet with you, step away from the meeting which is ongoing.
[Other language spoken]
And then he can speak to that and some of the other developments.
Over to you, Sir.
Thank you very much.
Thank you for the kind introduction and bonjour.
[Other language spoken]
It's good to be back in Geneva in this room.
I think we've just shifted the floor.
[Other language spoken]
So I'm here with the UN Secretary General's advisory body on artificial intelligence.
This is a group of 39 experts from different fields, from different sectors as well, and governments, private sector, academia and civil society that is meeting for the second time in person.
It's met many times virtually in follow up to an interim report they presented around Christmas.
So some of you may have seen this interim report called Governing AI for Humanity.
There are some copies with my colleague Rebecca.
[Other language spoken]
Essentially, the meeting in Geneva allows the advisory body to deepen its consideration, its analysis of a IS risks and challenges, the opportunities and what's needed to seize those opportunities for sustainable development, for instance.
And also what kind of international governance is required of this very powerful set of technologies so that we can master the challenges, we can address the risks and we can seize the opportunities.
In it's interim report, the advisory body presented some ideas.
It presented them in the form of guiding principles for international governance, international governance distinct from national regional regulatory responses such as the European Union's AI Act, and distinct from industry, self regulation, codes of conduct, etcetera.
So what are those guiding principles?
And they obviously include the guiding principle of inclusion.
But clearly governance.
If AI matters for all humanity, all humanity must be involved in its governance.
It cannot be left to a few the member states or a few actors to decide on those issues.
Those guiding principles also include the principle of public interest.
So what should AI governance be aimed at?
Advancing the public interest?
And then obviously I would, in the interest of time, I don't want to go into each and every principle, but in the UN context, there is an important principle that's basing ourselves on the UN Charter, on international law, on international human rights instruments, because we are not starting from a clean slate when it comes to governance, governance.
So I think basing ourselves on those shared norms is an important principle.
And then the advisory body has advanced some functions.
What kind of functions should be performed at the international level?
So seven sets of functions.
They presented it in the shape of a pyramid and the baseline of that pyramid is a regular scientific assessments of what's the direction of technology, what are its implications, something that you are familiar with from the climate change context, the intercomical panel on climate change.
So could there be something similar?
And the advisory body feels this is needed to allow member States and other actors, including the private sector, to take the right decisions.
So those functions, the body has followed a form follows function approach and the Geneva meeting in particular is allowing them and the discussion has started to deepen their assessment of how functions can be translated into forms.
And in this context, it was tremendously useful for them to meet with UN agencies, funds, programmes during the visit to Geneva as well.
So yesterday they spend the whole day sitting down with colleagues at the ILO, which had a very important discussion at its governing body meeting on the impact of artificial intelligence on work, on the future of work on the labour markets.
So WHOWIPOITU, the Office of the **** Commissioner for Human Rights.
So let me just stop there and turn the floor back to you so that we can have some questions.
[Other language spoken]
Thank you very much.
Ambassador Gill, do we have questions?
We we have a couple of online we'll check in the room first, please.
[Other language spoken]
Thank you, Rolando.
[Other language spoken]
My question is regarding how do you view sort of the this this process to come up with some sort of regulation or global rules on AI given the the increasing fractured or geopolitical landscape in which these would have to be taken.
Thinking in particularly that some of the biggest sort of players in this in this field, the US and China would have to sort of also come up find some common ground even when they have really different views of how this sort of Internet and AI should be governed.
[Other language spoken]
So within the body which is Co shared by James Maneka and Carmi Artigas.
[Other language spoken]
And James, as you know, president at Google, lives in the US, comes from Africa.
So we have members from the US, from China, from the European Union, from India, Japan, who are steeped in these issues.
And they were able to, in a very short span of time, 2 1/2 months, able to come to consensus on this kind of ambitious, well received analysis.
So that makes me optimistic.
[Other language spoken]
In New York there is a resolution, draught resolution at the UN General Assembly that the US is stable, extensive discussions that has also enlarged the ground for consensus.
I think there are something that everyone has agreed on that these are powerful technologies we just can't have business as usual.
You had the UK Air Safety Summit, you have discussion in G7G20.
The Italians are continuing the work of the Japanese Hiroshima process on AI.
So I think that ground is increasing.
And we at the UN, the UN sector general is very conscious of this in the context of the summit of the future this year, where there is a digital track among others.
You know, there's financing for development, peace and security, very important issues on the agenda of the summit, but there's also the Global Digital Compact whose negotiations, which, you know, they have start started.
So it's a great opportunity to build on those areas of consensus.
Thanks very much.
We'll now take John Zarqosis in the room to the right here.
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
I was wondering, Sir, what are your views on neurotechnology?
And when people do not volunteer to give access to their brain waves, are there going to be any guidelines to prevent this happening from people that don't approve it?
[Other language spoken]
I think that's a line that we should not cross at all.
You know, our notion of privacy should extend to mental privacy.
And we have now concerns with these large language models, you know, the way they process brain signals.
So your your private mental space may not be private for long.
So that concern is very much shared strongly.
And in some jurisdictions, Chile, for example, this is being and one state in the United States, by the way, you know, it's being translated into legislation at the UN.
We've had discussions on this.
Our colleagues at the UNESCO, building on their pre-existing work on bioethics, on AI ethics, are starting a process to bring different actors together to discuss what kind of frameworks, ethical frameworks should apply to neural technology.
I think our challenge is to bring the private sector more strongly into that because they are kind of leading the innovation in in this space.
But the point is well taken and we are cognizant of it and working on it.
[Other language spoken]
On that very issue, given that some of the leaders in this field in research, I also partners with UN agencies and some are also contributing to finances of UN agencies.
Do you have a firewall and conflict of interest register?
[Other language spoken]
I think that'll take us into a larger discussion.
[Other language spoken]
You know, in many cases in these areas the innovation is being led by the private sector.
So even governments and public technology investments in AI, neural technology are very limited.
And then geographically they're limited in, in terms of size.
The talent has moved largely to private sector.
So for practical reasons, we have to have a multi stakeholder approach to build collaborations with the private sector to enhance accountability, raise awareness of the challenges on the UN side, you know, human rights implications, hate speech implications, for instance.
So at the same time, we should not be seen at all as advancing particular commercial agendas, buying into hype of any kind.
And I think that's a challenge that we are all aware of.
So that's the kind of dilemma, that modern dilemma that we have to face and which governments also have to face today when they sit down with the CEOs of companies in the AI space to talk about regulation.
So they are often conflicted.
You know, how much do I step into my promotional role and how much do I step in where my regulatory hat?
I think in the UN we have to be even more careful.
Thank you very much.
[Other language spoken]
Christophe from AFP.
I'm just France press Christophe in the room.
Thank you for taking my question.
I was just wondering how you reconcile the, the speed at which this technology evolves.
It's it's practically daily and, and the need for time for the regulation or thinking about regulation and, and even guidelines.
How do you reconcile that?
And is, is it just a chase that will never end?
Yes, that's a challenge so different from the risk like on misinformation, disinformation, the challenge and the spacing problem as they call it.
But I think we met this challenge quite well with the interim report.
So 2 1/2 months, at least 40 meetings, a lot of deep dives and coming up with the quality analysis at A at an important time.
So we have to keep this up.
And particularly in terms of these regular scientific assessment, we cannot wait for five years for a report, you know, it's too late.
Or some of these other forums that we are used to in the technology management space.
And we also can't just rely on one set of tools, like our tools are outdated.
[Other language spoken]
We do want to have norms, but you can also rely on existing norms and be more agile in terms of this interplay of soft norms and hard law.
So all those things are top of mind.
And we hope that the recommendations, the follow up to this and the broader follow up to the Global Digital Compact addresses this pacing challenge through innovative approaches, through refreshed and creative tool boxes, tool boxes of international governance.
Maybe one perhaps from our online colleagues.
[Other language spoken]
We have a couple online, if with your indulgence, maybe we can take those two just quickly.
Catherine from France.
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
Good morning Amandeep, nice to see you.
My question is a fact a follow up about what my colleagues mentioned about the evolution, the very quick and fast evolution of the AI and developing countries.
We have less of those developing countries are 40% connected and most of the the, the people in charge of the artificial intelligence don't understand.
In fact, I would say the technology, as mentioned just before you started the briefing by one of my colleagues, even the journalists don't understand exactly all the very technical aspect of artificial intelligence.
And at the level of countries it is the same.
So what kind of tools do you intend to put at the disposal of those countries?
French speaking countries particularly and other languages?
Because most of the info is in English.
So you have already the barrier of the language.
Thank you for your answer.
Mercia Tois Katherine Kaplesi the the yeah problem kabuza vesu linear la forcier numerique yeah downs incessant of a clear ambassador the francophonie on a relevi.
So I switched to English now for benefit of everyone.
So this the problem with the digital divide, lack of capacity, lack of understanding, and also the fact that most of the data on which these large language models are trained is English data from one part of the world.
That's a huge problem.
And the the world's diversity is also an insurance against risk biases in data sets, etcetera.
So how do we uphold that diversity?
How do we uphold that understanding, particularly in regions which are already behind in terms of the digital divide, connectivity, meaningful connectivity, costs of excess costs of data.
So in the advisory body, there is a lot of emphasis on capacity building.
There's some ideas in terms of enhancing access to data, compute, talent, financial resources, and today and tomorrow's discussions would allow the advice body to come up with concrete suggestions in that regard so that the existing digital divide does not expand to new new areas like data and AI, which is already in some ways happening.
So we have to stop that concentration of tech power, economic power, almost cultural power with a more diverse innovation ecosystem.
[Other language spoken]
Mr Gill has to go back.
So we'll take this from Maya from the UN brief.
[Other language spoken]
Thank you very much for taking my question.
[Other language spoken]
Ambassador, really a pleasure to see you again.
My question is, aren't you worried that the composition of your Advisory Board has too much industry represented and not enough human rights and privacy law experts?
And also the dissenters like Gary Marcos, the scholar who is always criticising the problems with open AI and other big tech companies and Team Gruberu, the scholar who was pushed out of Google because she was doing important research on, on the fact that many of the questions of facial recognition systems were racist in, in their, in their design.
So isn't that a worry that to have just too much industry represented instead of a balance of privacy law and human rights law experts?
[Other language spoken]
My, it's a pleasure to listen to you.
No, I'm not worried because we had 1800 candidates who applied in their independent capacity, voluntary capacity to be members.
And from those 1800, we've select 39 that come from 33 countries, all 5 regions of the world, all sectors, as I mentioned.
And you need to have industry at the table.
So we have a few industry experts and we also have very strong human rights, ethics, civil society experts.
And yesterday when we had a session with **** Commissioner Folker Turk, you know, they participated actively, came up with very interesting ideas and suggestions.
So I'm not worried about the balance, but we can always do better.
And I know those two individuals that you mentioned very well, We engage with them.
Professor Marcus was at a one day long retreat of UN Entities and Systems recently on artificial intelligence.
So we benefited from his insights and to address this problem of, you know, you can't have just one body to address every issue.
There can always be gaps in expertise and insights.
The we've created a consultative network of 120 plus experts that include some of the experts that you mentioned who would come together regularly with the advisory body coaches and help a deep dive into some areas like intellectual property, open source, human rights, and some of issues around societal impact.
So we are enlarging the circle of engagement to address any potential gaps in expertise and knowledge within the body.
[Other language spoken]
Thank you very much.
You may have a follow up, but Ambassador Gill really has been very generous with this time he has to go back to Advisory Board.
So thank you very much for highlighting the supremely important issue and we'll make sure to keep our journalists abreast of your activities.
Thank you very much again.
[Other language spoken]
I think Ben, you have your hand still up.
So I think maybe that's for Yen's, our colleagues, it's for Yen's.
Do you want to pose a question when you wait for him?
Go ahead, pose the question.
[Other language spoken]
So my question is, I guess the same as my two other colleagues here about the, the ship that took off from departed from from Larnaca this morning.
Do you have any first of all, the, the, the, where is the UN in the operation?
I mean, what's the, the role or or the, the, the, the position of the UN and if you have any type of information about the amount of food that it's going to bring or the amount of food that is stuck at the border now and that this will help or not etcetera, etcetera.
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
Ben on, on your first question, the UN has has not been involved in the planning or the execution of this.
I can, I can see the, the World Central Kitchen, which is a reputable NGO, a very big one actually was been working with us in Rafa, for example.
So it's not somebody who's unknown to us, but they are tweeting indeed their head has just the boss has just tweeted out that the ship has has left Lanika and is on its way.
But that's basically all we know about that.
Any food and other emergency aid that comes into Gaza, as you all know, is desperately needed.
There is no question about it.
So it's highly appreciated.
As the air drops that we have seen, there are also concerns with that as as you have seen and reported yourself, what's important for us to stress again and again, I'm sorry if I sound like a broken record, but it's not a substitute for the overland transport of food and other emergency aid into Gaza and particularly northern Gaza.
It cannot make up for that.
So you know, make no mistake it is, it is welcome, but we need the overland access and the safe and secure and regular delivery within Gaza as well.
Thanks very much Jens.
[Other language spoken]
Very quick follow up.
Just is the, the, the UN thinking of using this corridor at one point or not?
Is it a reflection that you're having at now at the time?
What we have said is that any and all entry points into Gaza should be looked at.
And I think I will keep it at that.
All right.
Thanks, Yens Jeremy.
And if I may, Yens, another way to rephrase that.
Do you do you regret not being involved in, in, in this shipment?
As emergency responders, we tend to do things in these situations with no regrets.
We, we act when we can to help those we need to to help.
It's also fair to say that while the UN has a, has a, has a large and uncoordinated and big operation in Gaza, we're not the only show in town, right?
There are others.
The coordination, for example, that OCHA provides is voluntary.
Nobody is obliged to, to coordinate with us.
It's a it's a service that we provide for international responders in support of a strategic and coordinated response.
They luckily see the value of that.
That's that's why they keep coming to us and, and want to what want us to to help with the coordination.
Thanks very much, Catherine.
Francois Cat, you have a question for Jens?
[Other language spoken]
Yes, I mean it's regarding the coordination service offered by OCHA, who is, who is coordinating all the airdrops because some countries like Belgium are also organising airdrops.
So who is in fact coordinating those food airdrops if it's not OCHA?
So on the on, on, on that, yes, we, we have not been involved in any coordination of that.
I don't want to to speak out of turn on, on, on, you know, on behalf of organisations and countries who, who are doing this because I don't know exactly how how they have set themselves up.
But I do know as, as you do that a country like Jordan, for example, has been, has been out early doing this, as I understand, been quite instrumental in making these air drops happen.
Thanks very much, Jens.
I don't see further questions for you.
So I'd like to thank you very much for jumping up and joining me here in the podium.
And maybe just to highlight the SG yesterday in his take out, he did, he did appeal, as he has been for, for for months now, to onward for the spirit of Ramadan.
Specifically, he talked about silencing the guns and removing all obstacles, ensure the delivery of life saving aid at the speed and massive scale required.
This is part of his comments that we shared with you yesterday as he spoke at the Security Council stakeout yesterday.
[Other language spoken]
So I'd like to wish you a good afternoon and see you here on Friday.
[Other language spoken]