Jordan's King Abdullah II on Tuesday warned that technology is causing attention spans to dwindle, which could affect geopolitical stability.
Technology, particularly artificial intelligence, was a major focus of King Abdullah and US President Donald Trump's speeches at the UN General Assembly in New York.
“The scale of knowledge and the speed of change are unprecedented,” Jordan's monarch said, highlighting how images and videos from conflicts around the world can be viewed on smartphones and mobile devices.
“One study shows that average screen attention has fallen from 2.5 minutes in 2004 to just 47 seconds today.”
He added that “a screen is not the world. But it says something about the world today where attention has become a scarce habit and where we choose to direct it has never mattered more”.
King Abdullah told world leaders at UNGA that far too many people have forgotten the plight of Palestinians. He also suggested the world's waning level of attention was affecting how certain issues are addressed at the UN while others were ignored.
“In this chamber, attention is more than a cognitive resource,” he said. “It determines which conflicts receive sustained diplomacy and which fade from the agenda.”
Trump wants to rebrand AI
King Abdullah's speech was preceded by an address from Mr Trump, who defended AI at length.
Despite recent polls showing growing unease, especially among US voters, about the technology, Mr Trump brushed off the concerns, highlighting the transformative nature of AI.
Towards the end of his address, he said AI simply needed to be rebranded.
“The United States totally rejects any attempt to construct a globalist scheme to control artificial intelligence like how its being spoken of so much now, so here, and after, we will officially call it superintelligence, changing the name,” he said, insisting the word “artificial” undersold the burgeoning technology.
“From this point forward, all of United States documents and hopefully the world's will be changed to use the much more accurate term 'super' as opposed to 'artificial'.”
Such rebranding may not sit well with technology experts. The term superintelligence is already used in AI circles to describe a hypothetical scenario in which the technology could eventually perform highly advanced cognitive functions and develop reasoning skills that would surpass those of humans.
Previous attempts at rebranding by Mr Trump have hit the buffers, including his insistence during a trade dispute with Canada that Lake Ontario be renamed “Lake America”.
That aside, in his UNGA speech the US President dismissed calls to introduce more regulations on AI in the interests of cyber security, the labour market and the environment.
Mr Trump's comments come ahead of the US midterm elections in November, as more polls show his Republican Party is in danger of losing control of Congress.
That's where concerns about AI, and more specifically the AI-related issue of data-centre construction, are likely to influence voters.
A new poll from the University of Massachusetts Amherst indicates only 11 per cent of US residents say they would support the construction of an AI data centre in their community, while 65 per cent were opposed.
An NBC News poll found US voters are starting to “recoil” against US politicians who embrace unregulated AI and the building of data centres.
Since his second term in office began, however, Mr Trump has promised to free private companies from regulation for AI development, though recent incidents related to cyber security have caused White House officials to amend such pledges.
Polls have also found American voters are more concerned about the sputtering US economy and worrisome inflation than they are about AI.
Surveys show Mr Trump's decision to strike Iran at the end of February has grown increasingly unpopular.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who also addressed UNGA on Tuesday, spoke about AI with more of a melancholy tone.
“It is long overdue now to establish a common international legal framework for AI,” he said, referring to the threats that some say AI poses to cybersecurity and labour market.
“It is crucial to accelerate the work, which is already being carried out to draft and bring into force the UN international convention on AI,” President Erdogan continued, also touching upon AI’s ability to speed up the proliferation of disinformation on social media.
“Standing up for the truth has become more important today than ever before,” he said.
