The UN's top tech official discusses AI, bringing the world together and what keeps him up at night

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This fall, the United Nations is to convene an advisory group on artificial intelligence

UNITED NATIONS — Artificial intelligence, and how and whether to regulate it, has gotten a lot of discussion in and around this year's U.N. General Assembly meeting of world leaders. With a U.N. advisory group on AI set to convene this fall, the world organization's top tech-policy official, Amandeep Gill, sat down with The Associated Press to talk about the hopes, concerns and questions surrounding AI.

Here are excerpts from the interview, edited for length and clarity.

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AP: A number of national governments and multinational groups are talking about or beginning to take action on setting guardrails for artificial intelligence. What can the U.N. bring to the table that others can't?

GILL: I'd say three words. Inclusiveness — so bringing a lot many more countries together, compared with some of the very important existing initiatives. The second one is legitimacy, because there is a record of the U.N. helping countries and other actors manage the impact of different types of technologies, whether it’s bio, chem, nuclear, space science — not only preventing the misuse, but also promoting inclusive use, peaceful uses of these technologies for everyone’s benefit.

The third one is authority. When something comes out of the U.N., it can have an authoritative impact. There are certain instruments at the U.N. — for example, the human rights treaties — with which some of these commitments can be linked. (For example, if an AI feature) leads to the exclusion of a certain community or the violation of the rights of certain people, then governments have an obligation, under the treaties that they have signed at the U.N., to prevent that.