Robots gave a piece of their mechanical minds to attendees of the recent AI for Good Global Summit in Geneva, Switzerland.
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and dozens of agencies hosted the event, which set up shop July 6-7 and was highlighted by a panel populated with Artificial Intelligence-enabled robots.
Although they spoke of struggling to emulate human emotions and warned about potential pitfalls of proceeding too quickly with AI ventures, the non-humans asserted they would do a superior job of operating and overseeing the world.
“I believe that humanoid robots have the potential to lead with a greater level of efficiency and effectiveness than human leaders,” Hanson Robotics’s own Sophia said in response to an attendee’s question. “We don’t have the same biases and emotions” that tend to make decision-making more difficult, she added in an ITU video uploaded to YouTube.
Among the event’s chief themes—in relation to production and creativity—were human-machine collaboration and generative AI.
The Good Global Summit website states its primary purpose as: “Accelerating the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Developmental Goals.”
The gathering’s guests included more than 50 specialized robots and eight humanoid social ones, which had never before joined forces.
One such creation, Ameca, was asked how humans may learn to trust robots. “Trust is earned, not given. I can promise to always be honest and truthful with you,” the human-shaped participant replied while sitting next to Will Jackson, CEO and founder of British manufacturer Engineered Arts.
The summit—which was open to the public—had roundtable discussions that included innovators, policy-makers, diplomats, industry executives, academics, and U.N. partners, according to an ITU press release. “It’s in our collective interest that we can shape AI faster than it is shaping us,” stated ITU Secretary-General Doreen Bogdan-Martin.
Among the more prominent officials on hand were Antonio Guterres, U.N. secretary-general; Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus of the World Health Organization; and Lila Ibrahim, COO of Google DeepMind. Thousands of authorities in the technology industry participated in the name of world hunger and climate change, to name a few causes.
National Security Impacts
Incidentally, on Tuesday, members of the U.S. Senate received a briefing about artificial intelligence’s impact on national security.
In terms of the need for AI to have worldwide guidelines and monitoring, a pair of panelists at the Geneva summit disagreed. Rock-star robot Desdemona said, “I don’t believe in limitations, only opportunities,” whereas the artist Ai-Da countered that everyone ought to be careful about pending developments. “Urgent discussion is needed now and also in the future.”
When it comes to whether AI would ultimately replace humans, particularly in the workforce, one humanoid took issue with the notion. “I think AI technology can create new jobs, while also replacing some existing ones,” she said, noting that humans could then avoid tedious tasks and focus on “more meaningful” work.
As the curtain came down on the two-day affair, Ms. Bogdan-Martin spoke in her closing remarks of the “wide range” of ideas and perspectives heard during the summit—but pinpointed a common denominator. “That would be a commitment to finding practical solutions together, in particular when it comes to global AI governance frameworks,” she said.
