{"id":480030,"date":"2026-02-17T06:50:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T06:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/480030\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T06:50:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T06:50:09","slug":"ai-more-disruptive-than-steam-engine-electricity-un-envoy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/480030\/","title":{"rendered":"AI more disruptive than steam engine, electricity: UN envoy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A top official of the United Nations (UN) has warned that AI resembles earlier transformative technologies such as steam and electricity, but may be even more disruptive.<\/p>\n<p>Lessons from past industrial revolutions show that diffusion \u2014speed at which countries adopt and apply technology \u2014determines who benefits, said Amandeep Singh Gill, the UN Under-Secretary-General and Special Envoy for Digital and Emerging Technologies.<\/p>\n<p>He was speaking on \u2018Multilateralism and the Future of AI\u2019 at the India International Centre (IIC) here this evening.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAI is often misunderstood due to Hollywood narratives and incomplete notions of intelligence. In reality, AI systems identify statistical patterns in data to approximate perception, reasoning and action, not genuine understanding,\u201d said Gill, how is an alumnus of the Panjab University in Chandigarh.<\/p>\n<p>Gill, sharing another data, said modern-day large language models (LLMs) could now function as autonomous agents capable of multi-step tasks, significantly altering white-collar jobs.<\/p>\n<p>AI also presents opportunities in scientific breakthroughs, productivity gains, improved government services, better agriculture, health and climate solutions.<\/p>\n<p>Highlighting uneven computation capacities that create a deep \u201cAI divide\u201d, Gill pointed out that entire Africa had just 10,00 graphics processing units (GPUs), while Meta, the parent company of Facebook and WhatsApp alone had 6 lakhs GPUs. These units are needed to make machines think faster, process images, run AI programmes.<\/p>\n<p>These biased datasets could result in exclusion or concentration of power in private technology companies. Individually, AI feels empowering, however, at a policy level, it is concerning due to insufficient governance structures.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking about the role of the United Nations, Gill said AI cuts across peace and security, human rights, and sustainable development.<\/p>\n<p>The UN provides universality, convening power, and a foundation of norms required for global governance. UN has already set up an international scientific panel on AI.<\/p>\n<p>A proposed $3 billion global fund aims to help 80\u201390 countries lacking minimum AI capacity. A network of cooperation centres is emerging, with participation from countries, including India, Brazil, Kenya, Saudi Arabia, and others.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAI must be governed for the benefit of all humanity, ensuring fairness, reducing inequalities, and avoiding the mistakes made with climate change,\u201d said Gill.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A top official of the United Nations (UN) has warned that AI resembles earlier transformative technologies such as&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":480031,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[194284,105330,105331,194285,194286,62,276,277,49,48,105337,105338,61,36694],"class_list":{"0":"post-480030","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-aidivide","9":"tag-aiethics","10":"tag-aigovernance","11":"tag-emergingtechnologies","12":"tag-globalai","13":"tag-ai","14":"tag-artificial-intelligence","15":"tag-artificialintelligence","16":"tag-ca","17":"tag-canada","18":"tag-digitaltransformation","19":"tag-futureofai","20":"tag-technology","21":"tag-un"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=480030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/480031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=480030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=480030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=480030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}