AI and NATO

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People talk a lot about Artificial Intelligence.

They throw it around so much that even as a computer science student concentrating in AI, I have begun to dread all of the buzz-word applications of my field of study. Introducing our new AI-driven fruit stand! Pleased to anounce our powerful state-of-the-art AI lightbulb!!

Don’t get me wrong, AI is amazing. It has the potential to touch and uplift billions of lives. From improving success rates in ultra-precise brain surgery and advising financial sectors on risk analysis to flipping burgers and cleaning hazardous materials, the world is unequivocally better with AI.

However, this really isn’t news to anyone unless you’ve been living under a rock.

What I really want to talk about is something eye-opening that I learned during my team’s visit to NATO HQ during our first week in Belgium. During this visit, we sat down with NATO current policy, cybersecurity innovation, and cybersecurity policy officers to discuss the advent of AI in international politics.

During these conversations one theme echoed clearly across all three speakers. We don’t know what AI will be capable of, so we must regulate the systemic risks as opposed to the specific functionalities.

This is the first time the world has seen a “comprehensive horizontal legal framework,” (and you could say it’s AI-generated).

Not only has AI ushered in a new age of automation, information, and efficiency, it has also prompted policy makers to think more critically about the societal impacts and ethical considerations of new technologies. Creating effective and untradional legislation to make sure everyone enjoys fair and equal benefits of AI.