On April 15-19, 2024, the 27th United Nations Conference on Science and Technology was held at the Palais des Nations in Geneva as the highest level meeting (ministerial level), bringing together 193 governments and international leaders in the field of science and technology. Rebeca Grynspan, Secretary General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, and Ms Doreen Bogdan Martini and the President of the United Nations Economic and Social Council, H E. Ms. Paula Narv á ez delivered a special speech to collaborate on global technological development and cooperation. During this period, the 27th United Nations Science and Technology Conference AI Side Meeting "Shaping the Future of AI", jointly hosted by the World Digital Technology Institute (WDTA) and the Cloud Security Alliance Greater China (CSA GCR), was successfully held on April 16, while the "Digital Technology Summit for Establishing a Global Trusted Digital Space" was successfully held on April 14.
This AI side meeting brought together ministers and policy makers from over 50 countries around the world, top research institutions, heads of international organizations, as well as over 100 experts and decision-makers from enterprises. The meeting emphasized the urgency and importance of international cooperation and solidarity in the face of enormous opportunities and challenges in the global field of artificial intelligence.
The conference was chaired by Academician Li Yuhang, Executive Director of the World Academy of Digital Technology, and Peter Major, Vice Chairman of the United Nations Commission on Science and Technology for Development (UN CSTD) and Founding Director of the World Academy of Digital Technology (WDTA), emphasized in his speech that in the context of the rapid development of AI, international cooperation is crucial in addressing the impact of AI on health, safety, human rights, and the environment.
Professor Li Hui from Peking University, academician of the National Academy of Artificial Intelligence in the United States, Chief Information Scientist of the International Academician Center for Science and Technology Innovation, and Executive Director of the China Europe Intelligent Connected Vehicles and Autonomous Driving Industry Innovation Alliance, was invited to participate in the conference. During an academic keynote speech, Li Hui presented his team's first global cyberspace community of shared future technology solution, titled "MIN: for Every Nation to Jointly Build a Trust Cyberspace in the Digital World". He pointed out that the current mainstream network architecture in the world is a series of security challenges caused by the three fatal defects of IP networks. The first flaw is that the entire domain name system is managed by a single agency, and this centralized management constitutes a unilateral monopoly of cyberspace sovereignty. The second flaw is the lack of security genes in IP networks, leading to unsolvable network security, continuous accidents, and difficulties in protecting personal data privacy, resulting in the loss of individual data property rights. The third flaw is the severe solidification of IP network architecture protocols, making it difficult to upgrade and evolve. MIN is a multilateral co managed multi identifier network system developed by the National Key Science and Technology Infrastructure Laboratory of Peking University for over 10 years, which solves the three major shortcomings of IP networks mentioned above. In the MIN network, top-level identifiers are jointly managed by various countries to support interconnectivity, while lower level identifiers are independently managed by each country to achieve sovereignty independence, endogenous security, and a network addressing system that allows for natural survival of the fittest like species coexistence. MIN received high attention from the attending guests. At the AI side meeting, Li Hui stated that large model application software is posing serious challenges to cybersecurity, and the academic and industrial communities should face reality directly. He also had in-depth exchanges with experts and guests on the research progress of AI and network system security.
Li Hui's keynote speech
Laurie Localcio, Deputy Secretary for Standards and Technology at the US Department of Commerce and Director of NIST, introduced NIST's research and priorities in key technology areas such as artificial intelligence, semiconductors, cybersecurity, quantum science, and advanced communications. She specifically pointed out that NIST is committed to developing measurement, testing, and standards to ensure the safety and reliability of artificial intelligence, and has collaborated with global organizations to create an AI risk management framework. Suzan (Sam) Miller, Director of Google DeepMind Research Institute, emphasized the future development of AI and the constantly emerging new challenges. Heather Frase, Senior Researcher at the Center for Security and Emerging Technologies (CSET) at Georgetown University in the United States, focuses on macro regulatory issues related to AI during discussions. Wang Weiqiang, General Manager of the Machine Intelligence Department of Ant Group, introduced Ant Group's practices and achievements in the field of artificial intelligence in his speech. Nick Hamilton, Head of Governance, Risk, and Compliance at OpenAI, reiterated in his speech that OpenAI's mission is to ensure that artificial intelligence (AGI) benefits all of humanity and emphasized the principle of fair distribution of benefits in the development of AI products, ensuring the widespread availability and security of AI. Darlington Aakogo, Chairman of the African Union's AI Economic Committee and Founder and CEO of minoHealth AI Laboratory, stated that the AI system developed by his laboratory in collaboration with the United Nations and the Gates Foundation has solved the problems of healthcare infrastructure and personnel shortages in Africa, achieving significant results. The system can diagnose multiple diseases and is planned to be promoted globally. Aakogo is full of expectations for this and calls for international cooperation to jointly address global health inequalities and enable more people to enjoy advanced medical technology. Maxime Stauffe, co-founder and CEO of the Simon Institute for Long Term Governance, stated that a major risk is that most countries are unable to benefit from AI development, mainly due to infrastructure inequality.
Group photo of some guests after the meeting
Part of the guests taking a group photo at the United Nations Palace of Nations in Geneva
Exchange between Li Hui and Lars, Chairman of the International Big Data Governance Alliance