Hundreds of nations have agreed to adopt common values and principles to ensure Artificial Intelligence is developed in an ethical fashion.
All 193 members of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco), including the UAE, adopted the historical text on Thursday.
The world needs rules for artificial intelligence to benefit humanity,
Audrey Azoulay
Artificial intelligence is now woven into the tapestry of nearly every element of the modern world, including banking, travel and transport.
But the technology is also bringing unprecedented challenges, said Unesco.
"We see increased gender and ethnic bias, significant threats to privacy, dignity and agency, dangers of mass surveillance, and increased use of unreliable AI technologies in law enforcement, to name a few.
"Until now, there were no universal standards to provide an answer to these issues."
The new agreement aims to guide the construction of the necessary legal infrastructure to ensure the ethical development of this technology, said Audrey Azoulay, director general of Unesco.
"The world needs rules for artificial intelligence to benefit humanity," she said.
"The 'Recommendation on the ethics of AI' is a major answer. It sets the first global normative framework while giving States the responsibility to apply it at their level.
"UNESCO will support its 193 Member States in its implementation and ask them to report regularly on their progress and practices."
Environmentally friendly AI
The global agreement aims to provide a guide to ensure that digital transformation takes place without causing damage.
Nation states have agreed to ensure AI promotes human rights and contributes to the achievement of sustainable development goals, and to address the issues around transparency, accountability and privacy.
There are also action-oriented policy chapters in the agreement on data governance, education, culture, labour, healthcare and the economy.
One of its main calls is to safeguard data, going beyond what tech firms and governments are doing to guarantee individuals more protection by ensuring transparency, agency and control over their personal data.
The recommendation also explicitly bans the use of AI systems for social scoring and mass surveillance.
The text also attempts to ensure that AI will become a prominent tool in the fight against climate change and in tackling environmental issues.
In order to ensure this happens, those involved in developing AI should favour data, energy and resource-efficient methods, said Gabriela Ramos, Unesco’s assistant director general for social and human sciences.
"Decisions impacting millions of people should be fair, transparent and contestable," she said.
"These new technologies must help us address the major challenges in our world today, such as increased inequalities and the environmental crisis, and not deepening them."
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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Winner: Dirilis Ertugrul, Fabrice Veron (jockey), Ismail Mohammed (trainer)
2.15pm: Handicap Dh90,000 1,400m
Winner: Kidd Malibu, Sandro Paiva, Musabah Al Muhairi
2.45pm: Maiden Dh75,000 1,000m
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3.15pm: Handicap Dh105,000 1,200m
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4.15pm: Handicap Dh105,000 1,600m
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4.45pm: Handicap Dh80,000 1,800m
Winner: King’s Shadow, Richard Mullen, Satish Seemar
Desert Warrior
Starring: Anthony Mackie, Aiysha Hart, Ben Kingsley
Director: Rupert Wyatt
Rating: 3/5
