Two weeks in the life of AI, by Okoh Aihe

The past two weeks have been most consequential for AI, which remained at the centre of discourse in very high places. Oh, you are saying, “How can AI have life when it has no blood in its veins?” You tell me: how many people with barrels of blood in their system, no matter their placement in society, enjoyed the kind of attention AI attracted within a fortnight? British monarch, King Charles III, called a meeting of AI executives and promoters in Scotland and cautioned on the existential dangers of AI while promoting the good side of the technology. In the United States, AI has suddenly become a major campaign topic, with Democrats trying to gain some advantage in pushing for regulations, to the consternation of the Republicans, who are holding on to straws for survival at the impending mid-term elections.

But President Donald Trump is not entertaining any of their fears, which he has called a hoax that could harm the country’s advancement and front-row position in the development of AI. Again, AI was a major feature at the meeting between Trump and Xi Jinping, the Chinese leader, with both politicians agreeing to tread softly in order to protect what both countries stand to benefit from their vantage position in growing the technology.

After a three-day summit, the two countries agreed to set up a communication mechanism for artificial intelligence-related incidents, to discuss related risks and benefits, with an AI-specific dialogue scheduled for November, CBS News reported.

Trump went a step further to try to rechristen AI. “I call it SI (Super Intelligence) because it is a much better name. It is a much more accurate name because when you say the other, it means it’s fake. Artificial means it’s fake, and it’s not fake.” The rechristening didn’t seem to have gained any traction at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA 81), which adopted a resolution to promote safe, secure and trustworthy artificial intelligence systems for sustainable development. AI also stole papal attention. He called AI a paradise of machines. Speaking aboard the papal plane on his way back from a visit to France, Pope Leo XIV, according to AFP, said concerns about AI are no fake news but something that should be taken seriously.

“If we are to avoid losing our humanity amid a paradise of machines invading and conditioning our daily lives, there is an urgent need for education in ethical discernment,” Pope Leo said.

All these elevated conversations are happening at a time when even the promoters and manufacturers are beginning to express the fear that AI is moving with too much speed for humanity and a leash needs to be drawn. Bill Gates has raised the alarm that AI could wipe out a billion of humanity if restraints were not immediately introduced. Opening the conference with AI leaders, King Charles said: “There seems an urgency in adequately considering the existential dangers of such technologies falling into the wrong hands and being used in potentially catastrophic ways. Surely, we need sufficient means of control before it is all too late.” At the meeting with the king were Nvidia’s Chief Executive, Jensen Huang; Google DeepMind founder, Demis Hassabis; and Paolo Benanti, adviser to the Vatican on AI. Anthropic CEO, Dario Amodei, has called for a “slowing of the pace at which we improve the capabilities of AI models.” While OpenAI chief executive, Sam Altman, and Elon Musk also agreed with him, with Altman saying: “When we talk about pacing, we do not mean stopping. Progress has been rapid and will continue to be. But it should be slower than it otherwise could be; interventions like safety cases and monitoring have significant costs,” according to a CNN report.

In spite of the fears, President Trump has his own position. “The United States is not going to be putting on brakes. They want to stop our progress because we’re leading China by a lot and we’re going to keep it that way,” he said. On technology, Trump always takes his position. Whether it is space technology, 5G or even just the matter of TikTok, Trump takes a position on the side of America before anything else. But discussions on the floor of the United Nations were properly managed to make everybody look cool and comfortable, even if the plain truth remains that AI was going at too much speed for humanity to catch up with, talk less of developing countries that are very far behind. Adopting a United States-led draft resolution whose text was co-sponsored or backed by more than 120 other Member States, the UN recognised AI as having the potential to accelerate and enable progress towards reaching the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

Particularly on same rights, online and offline, the Assembly called on Member States “to refrain from or cease the use of artificial intelligence systems that are impossible to operate in compliance with international human rights law or that pose undue risks to the enjoyment of human rights.” Speaking before the adoption of the resolution, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the UN, stressed the need for the global community “to govern this technology rather than let it govern us.” In her words, “So, let us reaffirm that AI will be created and deployed through the lens of humanity and dignity, safety and security, human rights and fundamental freedoms. Let us commit to closing the digital gap within and between nations and using the technology to advance shared priorities and sustainable development,” she added. There is yet another angle to the AI discourse. The Guardian reports that AI godfathers have warned of the implications of a runaway “intelligence explosion.”

In the report co-authored by Nobel laureate Geoffrey Hinton and the Canadian computer scientist Yoshua Bengio, both hailed as godfathers of AI because of their work in the field, they called on politicians to act now before there is runaway progress in the technology. The paper, titled “What if automating AI R&D triggers an intelligence explosion?”, is co-authored by more than twenty people, among them Jack Clark, co-founder of Anthropic, and Jakub Pachocki, the chief scientist at OpenAI. The authors expressed concerns that AIs may get to the level of being able to improve themselves through a process that is known as “recursive self-improvement.” That could be good for technology, but it may come with some serious implications for humanity, prompting them to ask governments to take action. “Once an intelligence explosion begins, the window for action may close,” they warned. Humanity has always strived to go beyond itself in inventions: the journey to space, the airplane, nuclear technology with multidimensional functionality that can also create instruments of mass destruction, computers that can be manipulated at one end to create damaging results at the other end, autonomous cars and much more. And now AIs.

AI’s capacity to change the story of the world is never in doubt. Its capacity to transform every field of human endeavour, including healthcare, education, research, among others, has been duly acknowledged. But now the concerns are creeping in, causing even manufacturers and big promoters to call for a slow-down in growth.

Obviously, there are those who will rate pecuniary returns over human safety. And many more are worried that the technology may get into rogue hands! That is the greater danger: people whose capacity for evil is beyond the realm of humanity. AI in their hands could be more frightening than nuclear technology in the hands of a rogue state.

But what should be our position in this part of the world, as a developing country? Although the UN resolution accommodates us as a Member State, there may be a compelling reason for us to develop AI for developmental purposes, not AI for AI’s sake, just to join the rest of the world. It is the good in every technology that we must build and accommodate as a nation. Dr Bosun Tijani, who is the Minister for Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, has always canvassed the development and deployment of responsible AI. That seems to be the only way to go.

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