The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, issued a stark warning regarding the accelerating development of artificial intelligence, asserting that this progress could impose grave risks on humanity's future. Türk expressed deep concern that advanced AI might reach
a stage where it constitutes an "existential threat to humanity." In this context, he called for the urgent establishment of robust safety and security safeguards to protect AI before it is too late. During his address to the UN Human Rights
Council in Geneva on Monday, Türk stated that he "shares the concerns of sector officials that advanced AI may pose an existential threat to humanity." He emphasized, saying: "I call today for a comprehensive effort to establish strict, uncompromising safeguards
on AI safety and security before it's too late." Türk further conveyed his solidarity with the concerns raised by workers in the artificial intelligence sector regarding the potential dangers of this sophisticated technology. He affirmed that the world urgently needs a
"comprehensive effort" to set up rules and safeguards encompassing AI's safety and security. He pointed out that the apprehension does not stem solely from the technology itself but extends to the immense concentration of power associated with it; significant authority
over data, markets, resources, and information is now concentrated in the hands of a very limited number of entities. The UN High Commissioner observed that artificial intelligence is evolving and being deployed at an extremely rapid pace. He posed a fundamental
question about whether the global community is approaching it with the same level of caution applied to new medicines, which undergo a long series of rigorous tests and reviews before being approved for use. He warned that AI applications are
now infiltrating areas that raise serious human rights concerns, such as mass surveillance, the dissemination of misleading information, and algorithmic bias, in addition to their potential impacts on children and the environment. He also alerted that the concentration of power within
the AI sector represents an additional and pressing concern. He warned that "a few individuals" might acquire enormous influence over this technology, which increasingly affects the lives of billions of people. This situation unfolds at a time when governance and
oversight mechanisms are still developing at a much slower pace than the technology itself. Concurrently, Türk issued a warning regarding the use of artificial intelligence in military systems, explaining that automated decisions in this field could become a matter of "life
or death." He underscored the paramount importance of maintaining genuine human oversight capable of intervention in such cases. He concluded by asserting that addressing artificial intelligence necessitates placing human rights at the core of its development and regulation process, to
ensure that this technology remains a tool to serve humans, rather than a means by which societies lose their ability to control crucial decisions that impact their existence.
