At the US State Department’s Secure and Trusted AI event during the 79th UN General Assembly in New York, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken took to the stage on Monday with leaders of major tech companies to announce investments of more than $100 million to bring AI technology to developing countries.
Blinken said countries most affected by global challenges also deserve easy access to AI to help solve key problems. The State Department is working with OpenAI, Microsoft, IBM, Amazon, Google, Meta, Nvidia and Anthropic to advance AI technology and bring AI to countries in the global South. This effort means AI training for individuals and businesses, opening data centers, and access to discounted hardware and computer resources to help people achieve their goals.
For Blinken, investing in AI around the world is not just a moral imperative, but a national security requirement.
“These disparities hurt us all,” Blinken said in his speech at the United Nations. He added that inclusivity means people from all over the world can contribute to solving local problems, which leads to less stress around the world. “Food insecurity can lead to conflict and mass migration.”
Blinken praised technology partners for their cooperation in this effort, saying he hopes to help countries improve their AI capabilities by creating localized, context-specific datasets in their own languages.
The mass adoption of AI tools by big tech companies such as Google, Microsoft, Meta, and OpenAI has raised concerns that the technology is advancing faster than government regulation. Earlier this year, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution to promote the safe adoption of AI for the global good. The European Union has also adopted an Artificial Intelligence Act that establishes rules and legal frameworks and imposes restrictions on AI technologies that pose a high risk of causing harm. In response, big tech companies are lobbying to limit the impact of the EU AI Act.
While governments are working to curb the risks of AI proliferation, that hasn’t stopped governments and organizations around the world from promoting the technology or using it in dangerous ways. According to reports by 972 Magazine and The Guardian, AI technology was used to rapidly bomb Hamas positions in the Gaza Strip, leading to massive destruction and a surge in civilian deaths.
“We need to be focused on security, we need to be focused on making sure that our models are not returning the most dangerous outcomes that could be exploited by bad actors,” Nathaniel Fick, special envoy for the State Department’s Office of Cyberspace and Digital Policy, told reporters after the event. “But fundamentally, as policymakers we need to look to the North Star of innovation and opportunity, because AI has the potential to fundamentally change the trajectory of achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals.”
Fick added that the goal of the effort, similar to the UN’s larger AI goals, is to build broad international consensus on a set of AI principles, focusing on the architectural level of AI development around the world.
Ultimately, Blinken said no country has a monopoly on good ideas and that we need to empower everyone.
“For every question, somebody has a clue about the answer,” Blinken said.
