THE contributions of both faith and artificial intelligence (AI) to the goal of global peace were discussed in New York this week, as world leaders attended the UN General Assembly.
On Sunday, a “Pact for the Future” was agreed by UN representatives, setting out pledges on world peace, climate change, and poverty (News, 27 September).
It also contains a commitment to seizing “the opportunities presented by science, technology and innovation for the benefit of people and the planet”.
At a reception on Wednesday of last week, the World Council of Churches’ (WCC’) North American president, the Revd Dr Angelique Keturah Walker-Smith, said that the pact “marks a significant milestone. . . We believe that it is through collaboration, dialogue, and a shared commitment to values such as dignity, compassion, and justice that we can forge a future where all people — regardless of nationality, religion, or background — can thrive.”
Also on the Wednesday, at an event running parallel to the meeting, the WCC representative to the UN, Dr Ryan Smith, said that people should be “diligent into how technology and our deep understanding of faith work together”.
It was necessary to scrutinise the ways in which new technologies were used, a spokeswoman for the pressure group Stop Killer Robots, Isabelle Jones, said.
Autonomous weapons systems, dubbed “killer robots”, use AI to identify targets, on the basis of pre-programmed criteria. Some systems automatically fire artillery on these criteria, while others still require human authorisation.
Earlier in September, at the European Christian Internet Conference in Geneva, a representative of the UN refugee agency UNHCR spoke about the ways in which it could use AI positively.
The head of UNHCR’s Innovation Service, Hovig Etyemezian, said that he was “agnostic about technology. Technology is a tool, and in themselves, they are neither good nor bad.”
Within the UNHCR, AI was being used to improve prediction of population movements during displacements, and for studying refugees’ legal cases. AI could also improve early-warning systems: of natural disasters, for example, Mr Etyemezian said. He was speaking on 10 September, when the General Assembly’s 79th session began.
The Prime Minister, speaking at the General Assembly during the high-level week, which began on the 23rd, affirmed the value of international co-operation: “To grapple only with the effects of war, poverty, climate change, pandemics, or irregular migration when they arrive on our doorstep is to set ourselves up to fail. We must work with others to solve these problems at root, to tackle the causes,” he said.
He called for an immediate ceasefire in the Middle East, and pledged to “stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes”.
The threat from climate change was “existential”, he said, and “is happening in the here and now”. Countries must recommit themselves to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, he said. Britain under Labour had “reset” its approach to climate change.