Govts racing to put protection around AI: ITU

Since the emergence of generative AI, governments have been racing to put things in place to establish protections around AI development, deployment and abuse, said Doreen Bogdan-Martin, secretary general, International Telecommunication Union.

Speaking at a conference on emerging trends in regulation, Martin said 85% of ITU's 194 member states have yet to put any policy regulatory plans in place.

"A small percentage of countries that are actually putting in place regulatory framework, and those who are not there yet are eager to learn. They want a seat at the table, to share their experiences and needs," Martin said.

Martin said the world has a lot to learn from the experience of India for its unified payments interface, the Aadhaar digital identity and other building blocks that India has put in place for its digital economy and infrastructure, bolstered by one of the fastest 5G networks in the world.

"I think India is leading by example, and it's great that India is so willing to share its knowledge and experience, especially in digital public infrastructure with all of us," she said.

Martin said that while earlier regulators worked to increase access to the internet and convergence of telecom with broadcasting, now they are talking about different kinds of convergence, including how artificial intelligence fits into telecom.

"One of the big issues that we looked at was how you can regulate for impact. What does that mean in a digital context that is so much more complex than it was back in 2000? So we looked at issues like can our networks withstand the growing number of cyber attacks that are increasing by 80% year on year? And how can our networks be more resilient? How will things like AI driven deep takes and disinformation further erode public trust? And will everyone benefit from the global space economy?," Martin said.