World governments and leading tech companies on Tuesday made a series of pledges at a summit in Seoul, South Korea, focused on artificial intelligence, promising investments in research, testing and safety.
Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI and Samsung were among the companies that made the voluntary, nonbinding commitments to steer AI away from working on bioweapons, disinformation or automated cyberattacks, according to statements from the summit and reporting from Reuters and AP. The companies also agreed to build a “kill switch” into their AIs, effectively allowing them to shut down their systems in the case of a catastrophe.
“We cannot sleepwalk into a dystopian future where the power of AI is controlled by a few people,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement. “How we act now will define our era.”
The promises made by governments and leading tech companies mark the latest in a series of efforts to build rules and guardrails as the use of AI continues to grow. In the past year and a half since OpenAI released its ChatGPT generative AI chatbot, companies have flocked to the technology to help with automation and communications. Companies are using AI to help monitor infrastructure safety, identify cancer in patient scans and tutor children on their math homework. (For hands-on CNET reviews of generative AI products including Gemini, Claude, ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot, along with AI news, tips and explainers, see our AI Atlas resource page.)
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The Seoul summit took place as Microsoft, on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, was unveiling its latest AI tools at its Build conference for developers and engineers, and a week after Google’s I/O developer conference where the search giant presented advances in its Gemini AI systems and also made note of its AI safety efforts.
But AI experts are also raising alarms that despite promises of safety, AI development has extreme risks.
“Society’s response, despite promising first steps, is incommensurate with the possibility of rapid, transformative progress that is expected by many experts,” a group of 15 experts, including AI pioneer Geoffrey Hinton, wrote in the journal Science earlier this week. “There is a responsible path — if we have the wisdom to take it.”
Tuesday’s agreement between governments and leading AI companies follows on a previous set of commitments made by companies last November, when delegates from 28 countries agreed to contain potentially “catastrophic risks” by AI, including through legislation.
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Correction, May 22: This story originally misstated the location of this week’s AI summit. It took place in Seoul, South Korea.
Editors’ note: CNET used an AI engine to help create several dozen stories, which are labeled accordingly. The note you’re reading is attached to articles that deal substantively with the topic of AI but are created entirely by our expert editors and writers. For more, see our AI policy.
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