New Delhi declaration of AI

Why is in news? Global Partnership on AI members adopt New Delhi declaration, bat for equitable access to AI resources

The Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI), an alliance of 29 member countries, has unanimously adopted the New Delhi declaration underscoring the need to mitigate risks arising from the development and deployment of AI systems, and promoting equitable access to critical resources for AI innovation including computing and high quality diverse datasets.

Hosting the summit, India is set to chair the GPAI grouping in 2024.

Highlights of the Summit:

It promises to position GPAI at the front and centre of shaping the future of AI in terms of both innovation and creating collaborative AI between partner nations to create applications in healthcare, agriculture, etc.

All GPAI members had also agreed that the group would lead global conversations on shaping the future of AI governance as well as keeping it safe and trusted.

GPAI will focus on the needs of the Global South in the development of AI and make AI platforms and solutions available to the people of the Global South.

This agreed to create a global framework on AI trust and safety and make AI solutions and benefits available for all.

Like-minded countries will have to move faster to ensure that by the time all GPAI countries meet next year in Korea, there are definitive granular regulations that all nations have around AI.

GPAI will now have to be more granular and get down to defining the contours of the rules that will define how users interact with AI.

There are concerns that the use of AI can lead to misinformation and disinformation, unemployment, leakage of personal data, and threats to human rights and democratic values.

For Example, Republican National Committee ran attack ads against US President Joe Biden in the run up to 2024 election campaign using generative artificial intelligence in a significant instance of political misinformation campaign.

Shaping the future of AI: Promises to position GPAI at the front and centre in terms of both innovation and creating collaborative AI between the partner nations.

Humanitarian and Democratic values: AI development needs to follow the path of efficiency, ethics and effectiveness, along with keeping a place for emotions.

The declaration also acknowledged the need for equitable access to resources, which must be considered, accounted for, or addressed in order for societies to benefit from and build competitive AI solutions.

About the declaration on AI:

Its focus is on collaboration, inclusion, and creating a governance framework for AI.

Goals:

Position GPAI as a leader in shaping the future of AI.

Foster collaborative AI development among member nations.

Apply AI in healthcare, agriculture, and other crucial areas.

Make the benefits of AI accessible to everyone, including countries of the global south.

Timeline: Specific principles and targets will be developed over the next few months, with another GPAI meeting to discuss them.

Expansion: Senegal was elevated to the steering committee, reflecting India’s goal to expand GPAI during its presidency.

Additional Announcement: Japan approved the establishment of a GPAI expert centre in Tokyo.

Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI):

It is an international initiative established to guide the responsible development and use of artificial intelligence (AI) in a manner that respects human rights and the shared democratic values of its members.

The partnership was first proposed by Canada and France at the 2018 44th G7 summit, and officially launched in (June) 2020.

It was started with 15 member countries, today GPAI has grown into an alliance of 29 member countries including the EU, with India as the founding member.

It includes countries like India, the United States, the UK, France, Japan, Canada, etc.

China, a major tech superpower, is not part of the multilateral grouping.

GPAI is hosted by Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Objectives of the GPAI:

It is a multi-stakeholder initiative which aims to bridge the gap between theory and practice on AI by supporting cutting-edge research and applied activities on AI-related priorities.

It brings together engaged minds and expertise from science, industry, civil society, governments, international organisations and academia to foster international cooperation.

New Delhi declaration contrast with the Bletchley declaration:

While the GPAI New Delhi declaration addresses the need to tackle AI-related risks, it largely supports innovation in the technology in various sectors, including agriculture and healthcare.

The essence of the declaration can be summed up as follows: AI is inherently good and is a catalyst for economic growth, but some harms need to be mitigated along the way.

By contrast, the declaration that was signed at the UK AI Safety Summit last month put security and safety risks related to AI in the centre of the discussions.

At the Bletchley Park meeting, 28 major countries including the United States, China, Japan, the United Kingdom, France, and India, and the European Union agreed to sign on a declaration saying global action is needed to tackle the potential risks of AI.

The declaration noted the “potential for serious, even catastrophic, harm, either deliberate or unintentional, stemming from the most significant capabilities of these AI models”, as well as risks beyond frontier AI, including those of bias and privacy.

“Frontier AI” is defined as highly capable foundation generative AI models that could possess dangerous capabilities that can pose severe risks to public safety.