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The first UN resolution on Artificial Intelligence (AI), supported by Morocco and the United States, is “historic” and basis for an international action for management and collective global governance of AI, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Morocco to the United Nations, Omar Hilale, said.
In a statement to Medi 1 TV, Hilale highlighted the four main issues of this resolution which will be adopted this Thursday by the United Nations General Assembly.
Politically, “it was time to reach a UN consensus on a common and collective and not fragmented perception” on AI, to face the proliferation of regulations and initiatives, observed in recent years, he pointed out.
The second issue, Ambassador Hilale noted, concerns the imperative to have a common vision of AI applications which must be reliable, inclusive, human-centered, development-oriented and international law-based, adding that the third concerns the need to promote an inclusive dialogue between countries, partners and different stakeholders (businesses, research laboratories, private sector, etc.).
Regarding the fourth issue, he said, it relates to optimizing the exploitation of AI to achieve development goals.
“If we can optimally exploit AI, developing countries, in particular, will save time and enormous amounts of money, energy and human resources,” he said.
Asked about the potential of AI as a strategic development lever for Africa and Morocco, Hilale recalled that the African continent is “abysmally” lagging in the field of new technologies, in general, and in AI in particular, emphasizing that this resolution helps developing countries and all South countries to reduce this gap and to cooperate together.
He thus underlined that cooperation areas include in particular the transfer of technologies, the financing of AI development, the collective exploitation of applications, as well as various other sectors such as agriculture, health, the fight against climate change and poverty, and food security.
The Moroccan diplomat also said that developing countries in general, and Africa in particular, must not lag behind in the implementation and especially in the appropriation of Artificial Intelligence, because “their development is at stake.”
“Morocco, the advocate of developing and especially African countries during the negotiation of this resolution”, is at the forefront of Artificial Intelligence at the continental level, adding that the Kingdom hosts, within the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P) the international artificial intelligence center “AI Movement”, the first of its kind in Africa.
This center, he recalled, is a pioneer in the field of research and sharing of Moroccan experience in this area with sister and friendly countries, noting that the Kingdom will host, next June, the first AI Summit, which will be organized jointly with UNESCO.
“We are proactive, dynamic and united with the countries of the South, whose development is at the heart of His Majesty King Mohammed VI’s strategy for a continent that takes care of itself,” he concluded.
Source: map
