'Knife's edge': UN chief Guterres warns world leaders to keep AI out of nuclear decisions
UN Secretary-General António Guterres
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has warned against allowing any role for artificial intelligence in the decision to launch nuclear weapons.
He told a session of the Arms Control Association (ACA) that "humanity is on a knife's edge", with the risk of nuclear conflict at "heights not seen since the Cold War".
UN chief's warning
"States are engaged in a qualitative arms race," Guterres said.
"Technologies like artificial intelligence are multiplying the danger. Nuclear blackmail has re-emerged with some recklessly threatening nuclear catastrophe. Meanwhile, the regime designed to prevent the use, testing, and proliferation of nuclear weapons is weakening. Dear friends, we need disarmament now."
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He said countries should be disarmed, and nuclear-armed states need to give an example to the world. You can watch what he said here:
In a statement, he urged the "United States and the Russian Federation to get back to the negotiating table, fully implement the new START treaty, and agree on its successor".
"Until these weapons are eliminated, all countries must agree that any decision on nuclear use is made by humans; not machines or algorithms."
Guterres' warning comes against the backdrop of recent concerns around the role of AI in the Gaza and the Ukraine wars.
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Automated nuclear weapons: A new thing?
As per IFL Science, while the idea of nuclear-armed AI may appear far off, historical precedent suggests these kinds of dangers are possible with any automated system.
The Soviet Union, during the Cold War, designed something they nicknamed "dead hand" as a way to ensure that nuclear retaliation would happen in the event a nuclear attack had destroyed the rest of their command structure.To do this, the system monitors various signs of a nuclear attack. If confirmed, the system would check communication lines between top Soviet officials and, in the absence of that, transfer launch authority to lower-level operators in a bunker.
Though it was never used, its risks were highlighted by a near miss on September 26, 1983: on that day, a Soviet missile detection system falsely reported an incoming nuclear strike from the United States. Fortunately, a Soviet military officer, Stanislav Petrov, averted a response at that time. Further analysis showed that sunlight glinted from high-altitude clouds and was misinterpreted by the satellite data.
(With inputs from agencies)
