Can Wisdom Triumph Over Artificial Intelligence?

GCSP Director Ambassador Thomas Greminger shared his perspective in a Strategic Foresight Group debate on whether human wisdom can prevail over artificial intelligence, marking the launch of the report The Essential Convergence: Global Compact for Extreme AI Risks.

"There is some momentum.

The key will be to get enough influential stakeholders pulling in the same direction. China and the US – which are two AI superpowers – are apparently exploring guardrails, particularly preventing malign actors from accessing the most powerful or advanced AI models. Other states, and certainly civil society, should also realize the self-interest in greater regulation.

Sceptics might argue that the current fractured geopolitical situation is not the most conducive environment for brokering new international agreements. But in the past two years, states – even with fundamentally different world views – have agreed to a UN Convention against Cybercrime and a Global Ocean Conservation Treaty. So it’s possible.

Furthermore, the bar for cooperation can be rather low. Shared threat perceptions may be sufficient to enable international cooperation, even among strategic rivals. Convergence in threat perceptions can lead to a convergence of responses. This paper – entitled The Essential Convergence – calls for a coordinated framework through which states align around shared definitions of extreme risks, minimum safeguards, and collective response mechanisms. This is a rather light form of regulation that can create interoperable global mechanisms capable of managing extreme risks collectively. That sounds like common sense to me. And highly urgent."