The two-day inaugural U.N. Global Dialogue on AI Governance is not intended to forge a treaty, but to discuss how to set rules to mitigate the potential harms of AI and take advantage of its opportunities

International News via Reuters:

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday warned that artificial intelligence is developing faster than anyone can keep up, calling for globally harmonised rules to reduce potential risks – especially to children. 

“A technology that can reshape economies, transform the world of work, sway elections and tilt the balance of security is being deployed faster than anyone, including the people building it, can keep up,” Guterres told delegates at the first-ever government-level global dialogue on AI in Geneva.

“Innovation needs guardrails … If AI is to be powerful, it must be governed,” Guterres told delegates. 

The two-day inaugural U.N. Global Dialogue on AI Governance is not intended to forge a treaty, but to discuss how to set rules to mitigate the potential harms of AI and take advantage of its opportunities.

Delegates will consider a report by a U.N.-backed independent scientific panel of 40 experts, who will present findings from the first global, independent scientific assessment of AI.

A more comprehensive report is planned next year, alongside a second global meeting in New York.

NEED FOR GLOBAL RULES ON AI

Guterres stressed that globally harmonised rules on AI must prioritise safety for children after examples of minors being steered towards self-harm and being deceived by machines posing as friends.

“We do not let medicine reach a child until it is proven safe. We test every toy. Yet AI has reached our children – their learning, their friendships, their most private questions – before anyone asked what it would do to them,” he said.

He called for an AI Child Safety Pledge, where companies building systems would have to prove they are safe before making them accessible to children.

Systems should also not be allowed to generate sexual images of children, and when a child shows signs of distress, the system should stop and connect them to a human for help. 

While AI poses significant opportunities, such as in healthcare, Guterres said the world’s institutions were not prepared for machines that make decisions, and that AI’s breakneck speed of development meant machines were increasingly making choices with little human or government oversight. 

“The internet took 15 years to reach a billion people. AI got there in two,” Guterres told delegates. 

He also warned about the concentration of the most advanced AI systems within a handful of companies and countries, meaning developing countries have little say in the progress of AI and risk being left behind.

The independent report of scientific experts found that AI development is even more concentrated, with the U.S. accounting for 75% of the computing power among the world’s top 500 AI supercomputers, and ⁠China 15%.

While globally over a billion people now use conversational AI weekly, adoption in developing countries lags, the report added.

BRIDGING AI GAP

Guterres said that if used well, AI could compress decades of development into years, potentially becoming “the great equalizer of the twenty-first century”.

The head of Libya’s Presidential Council, Mohamed al-Menfi, urged that the AI gap be closed in Africa, which accounts for 10% of the world’s population but only possesses fewer than 2% of global data centres. 

“AI cannot be a legitimate resource if African countries cannot make use of it,” he said, calling for greater participation of African states in the design of AI rules. 

Georgian President Mikheil Kavelashvili told delegates that world leaders also had a shared responsibility to create robust international laws to prevent the power of AI from becoming an “instrument of totalitarian control and new digital tyranny”.  

Reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin, Editing by Miranda Murray and Andrei Khalip

The clashes began on Sunday between convicted prisoners and those under detention at the prison in the coastal town of Negombo, about 35 km (20 miles) north of the commercial capital city of Colombo

International News via Reuters:

Twenty-five people were killed and about 100 injured in clashes between two groups of prisoners at a prison in Sri Lanka on Monday, two police sources and one hospital source told Reuters. 

The clashes began on Sunday between convicted prisoners and those under detention at the prison in the coastal town of Negombo, about 35 km (20 miles) north of the commercial capital city of Colombo, the sources said.

The trigger for the clashes was not immediately known.

Police sources said that areas within the prison were still being cleared, with officials working to account for the dead and the injured.

“Military has been requested to provide support to the police but at the moment they are on standby,” Army spokesman Brigadier Waruna Gamage told Reuters.

Visuals from Derana TV showed heavy police deployment outside the gate of the prison as a police bus carrying the injured inmates, some of them sprawled on its floor, left the premises.

Reporting by Uditha Jayasinghe, writing by Sakshi Dayal; Editing by YP Rajesh

There was no immediate response from South Africa’s government, which has contested some similar accounts from other countries

International News via Reuters:

Nigeria said two of its citizens were killed in South Africa, one of them by police, during a surge in anti-migrant violence, and threatened to take unspecified action if authorities did not address the situation.

There was no immediate response from South Africa’s government, which has contested some similar accounts from other countries. The main police watchdog said it was investigating the report.

Nigeria’s foreign ministry said on Sunday one man was killed in front of his shop in the northeastern city of eMalahleni by unidentified criminals.

It gave no more details on the incident, which it said took place on Sunday, June 28 — on a weekend when tensions were building up ahead of nationwide anti-migrant rallies last week.

The Nigerian ministry said another man, Emeka Iroegbu, was killed by police officers in Pretoria during an interrogation the same day. It did not say whether the incident was linked to the unrest.

South Africa’s Independent Police Investigative Directorate, an oversight body, said it had received a report on the incident last week. “Our investigation is underway,” the body’s spokesperson, Lizzy Suping, said on Monday.

South Africa deployed its army to bolster security during the protests, which were mostly peaceful but at times turned violent.

Vigilantes have attacked foreign nationals and looted foreign-owned shops on numerous occasions in the last few months, as South Africans blame immigrants for problems such as crime and unemployment. Migrant rights groups say foreigners are being used as scapegoats for deep-rooted problems.

Mozambique said that five of its citizens were killed in xenophobic attacks in late May. South Africa said the number was only two.

Ghana said last week one of its citizens was fatally wounded in a shooting during the anti-immigrant demonstrations. South Africa said his killing was not related to the protests and accused Ghana of spreading misinformation.

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa has condemned the attacks against migrants. Police said they arrested 900 people during last week’s protests.

Nigeria’s foreign ministry said on Sunday: “We wish to place the Government of South Africa on notice that if the situation continues to persist, all options remain on the table, some of which will be activated if the uncultured and provocative trend of intolerance… against foreigners is not addressed.”

“The continuing pattern of such terrible incidents is clearly evidence of complicity on the part of security operatives… which raises the question of state responsibility under international law,” the ministry added.

Reporting by Nellie Peyton; Editing by Andrew Heavens

Two to three multi-storey houses in a slum collapsed in the Mankhurd area of Mumbai, which left five young children and one woman dead, civic authorities said

International News via Reuters:

At least six people including five children were killed when a group of buildings collapsed in the eastern suburbs of India’s Mumbai on Sunday, the latest casualties of heavy rains that have disrupted travel and shut down schools in the city. 

Here are some details: 

• Two to three multi-storey houses in a slum collapsed in the Mankhurd area of Mumbai, which left five young children and one woman dead, civic authorities said.

• Rains also triggered landslides on the expressway connecting Mumbai with Pune, forcing its closure and disrupting traffic between the two cities.

• Television images showed broken slabs of construction rubble on the road, while rainwater fell from the roof of a tunnel.

• Besides road transport, flights were disrupted and long-distance train services, including those running between Mumbai and Pune, were also cancelled.

• Local media showed residents trudging through waterlogged lanes, as schools and colleges were shut for Monday.

• Heavy rains have also led trees to collapse on Mumbai roads, killing at least three people since late last month, local media say.

• The city, the financial capital of India, received more than 100mm (3.9 inches) of rainfall, with some regions receiving as much as 161mm (6.3 inches) of rain.

• India’s weather office has predicted “a spell of very light to light” rain for Monday at many places in the national capital region.

Reporting by Shilpa Jamkhandikar and Rajendra Jadhav, Writing by Hritam Mukherjee; Editing by Lincoln Feast.