Artificial Intelligence (AI) - ECOSOC Special Meeting | United Nations

The meeting will include an opening, two interactive sessions – one in the format of a fireside chat and the other as a panel discussion, and a closing.

- Fireside Chat: Emerging Trends of AI Innovations and the SDGs
- Panel Discussion: Building Foundations for AI in the Global South

The Special Meeting of the Economic and Social Council on Artificial Intelligence (AI)  will bring together Member States, UN system experts, private sector leaders, innovators, and civil society stakeholders to follow up on the outcomes of the Summit of the Future, including the Global Digital Compact.

It will showcase the potential for AI to accelerate sustainable development in the Global South, paying special attention to the role of strategic investments, partnerships, and international cooperation in addressing foundational needs and capacity development.

To watch in all UN official languages (AR/ES/FR/RU/ZH), visit: https://webtv.un.org/en/asset/k15/k15yy7mllx

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President of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Bob Rae said, “What AI is all about is not going to be determined by a handful of actors, no matter how powerful they may be.”

Addressing the Economic and Social Council today (6 May) Rae said, “What AI is all about is not going to be determined by a handful of actors, no matter how powerful they may be. They're going to have to listen to the voices of the people, and of their governments.”

Also addressing ECOSOC today, Amandeep Singh Gill, UNUnder-Secretary-General and Special Envoy for Digital and Emerging Technologies, said, “The opportunities are immense. Just three weeks ago, clinicians in Benin field-tested a mobile ultrasound system whose on-device AI diagnosed tuberculosis with a 93 percent sensitivity.”

He also said, “And all of these challenges related to equity, excess, the divides, the opportunities and there are risks., plenty of risks would demand governance, would demand capacity, capacity related to policy in particular, would demand resources, financing. And we are at a moment where the SDGs are not doing well, where we are struggling to find less constrained fiscal spaces. So, this opportunity has to be taken seriously.”

He highlighted, “Africa put together has less than 1000 GPUs (Graphics Processing Units) critical for training AI models and just a single US company, meta has more than 250,000 GPUs. So, it just tells you the scale of that problem.”

He continued, “The African Union's continental AI strategy, the ASEAN guide on AI governance, the Latin American coordinated approach through the Santiago declaration, all of these developments tell us here in New York that we need to move forward with urgency on these three global pathways that come out of the GDC, but we also need to work closely with the regions, because the regions are dynamic, they are taking their own steps. And in a future where the UN has to be even more fit for purpose, I think there's no alternative to networked multilateralism.”

He concluded, “The GDC (the Global Digital Compact) provides us with a framework, but frameworks alone do not create change. The task now before us is to translate that framework, those principles into practice.”

The ECOSOC Special Meeting on Artificial Intelligence (AI) is bringing together Member States, UN system experts, private sector leaders, innovators, and civil society stakeholders to follow up on the outcomes of the Summit of the Future, including the Global Digital Compact.

It is also showcasing the potential for AI to accelerate sustainable development, paying special attention to the role of strategic investments, partnerships, and international cooperation in addressing foundational needs and capacity development in the Global South.