Page 58 - AI Governance Day - From Principles to Implementation

AI Governance Day - From Principles to Implementation

– Gilbert Houngbo, Director-General, International Labour Organization (ILO)
– Dongyu Qu, Director-General, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)

Moderator:

– Reinhard Scholl, Programme Chair, AI for Good
The panel focused on two goals: how AI can help achieve the United Nations Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs), and how the UN system can support AI governance efforts and
international collaboration.

Achieving the the United Nations sustainable development goals with AI

The discussion began with a question posed by Programme Chair Mr. Reinhard Scholl to
Secretary-General Doreen Bogdan-Martin regarding the role of the UN system in ensuring that
AI supports the Sustainable Development Goals. Secretary-General Bogdan-Martin emphasized
the importance of collaboration and leveraging existing platforms.

"The proof is actually right here on this amazing panel […] what countries need, what
countries want to see, is actually the UN working as one on the ground." (Doreen
Bogdan-Martin)

Secretary-General Bogdan-Martin highlighted the fundamental pillars of the 2030 Agenda:
people, planet, prosperity, peace, and partnership, noting that AI is central to all these pillars.
She pointed out the AI for Good platform, which brings together over 40 UN agencies and
27 000 experts from 180 countries, the just now launched UN AI Activities Report with some
400 initiatives and projects within the UN system, ITU's technical work with WHO and WIPO
on health, with FAO on agriculture, as well as the UN's interagency mechanism on AI which
ITU leads with UNESCO.

Addressing the skills gap

Mr. Tshilidzi Marwala, Rector of the United Nations University and UN Under-Secretary-General,
was asked about the UN's role in closing the skills gap and ensuring equitable benefits from an
AI-dominated economy. Under-Secretary-General Marwala outlined four critical areas: access
to data, access to expertise, access to computing resources, and access to good applications.
He noted the high cost of cloud computing and the lack of high-performance computing
resources in the global South.

"We need to create a platform where people from the global South and people from
the global North can come together and co-create." (Tshilidzi Marwala)

He also stressed the importance of changing human behavior, creating incentives, and
establishing proper policy frameworks to ensure effective utilization of AI.

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