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A30 world news
Diahuebs 16 september 2021

UN urges moratorium on use of AI that imperils human rights

and lacks scientific basis. ican and European officials,
Bachelet didn’t call for an has sought to collaborate on
outright ban of facial recog- “The use of emotion rec- developing shared rules for
nition technology, but said ognition systems by public AI and other tech policy.
governments should halt the authorities, for instance for
scanning of people’s features singling out individuals for Efforts to limit the riskiest
in real time until they can police stops or arrests or to uses of AI have been backed
show the technology is ac- assess the veracity of state- by Microsoft and other U.S.
curate, won’t discriminate ments during interrogations, tech giants that hope to guide
and meets certain privacy and risks undermining human the rules affecting the tech-
data protection standards. rights, such as the rights to nology. Microsoft has worked
privacy, to liberty and to a fair with and provided funding to
While countries weren’t men- trial,” the report says. the U.N. rights office to help
tioned by name in the report, improve its use of technol-
China has been among the The report’s recommenda- ogy, but funding for the re-
countries that have rolled out tions echo the thinking of port came through the rights
facial recognition technology many political leaders in office’s regular budget, Hicks
(AP) — The U.N. human astrophic, effects if they are — particularly for surveil- Western democracies, who said.
rights chief is calling for used without sufficient re- lance in the western region of hope to tap into AI’s eco-
a moratorium on the use gard to how they affect peo- Xinjiang, where many of its nomic and societal potential Western countries have been
of artificial intelligence ple’s human rights,” Bachelet minority Uyghers live. The while addressing growing at the forefront of expressing
technology that poses a se- said in a statement. key authors of the report said concerns about the reliabil- concerns about the discrimi-
rious risk to human rights, naming specific countries ity of tools that can track and natory use of AI.
including face-scanning Her comments came along wasn’t part of their mandate profile individuals and make
systems that track people with a new U.N. report that and doing so could even be recommendations about who “If you think about the ways
in public spaces. examines how countries and counterproductive. gets access to jobs, loans and that AI could be used in a
businesses have rushed into educational opportunities. discriminatory fashion, or to
Michelle Bachelet, the U.N. applying AI systems that af- “In the Chinese context, as in further strengthen discrimi-
High Commissioner for fect people’s lives and live- other contexts, we are con- European regulators have al- natory tendencies, it is pretty
Human Rights, also said lihoods without setting up cerned about transparency ready taken steps to rein in scary,” said U.S. Commerce
Wednesday that countries proper safeguards to prevent and discriminatory applica- the riskiest AI applications. Secretary Gina Raimondo
should expressly ban AI ap- discrimination and other tions that addresses particular Proposed regulations out- during a virtual conference in
plications which don’t com- harms. communities,” said Hicks. lined by European Union June. “We have to make sure
ply with international human officials this year would ban we don’t let that happen.”
rights law. “This is not about not having She cited several court cases some uses of AI, such as
AI,” Peggy Hicks, the rights in the United States and Aus- real-time scanning of facial She was speaking with Mar-
Applications that should be office’s director of thematic tralia where artificial intelli- features, and tightly control grethe Vestager, the Europe-
prohibited include govern- engagement, told journalists gence had been wrongly ap- others that could threaten an Commission’s executive
ment “social scoring” sys- as she presented the report in plied.. people’s safety or rights. vice president for the digital
tems that judge people based Geneva. “It’s about recogniz- age, who suggested some
on their behavior and certain ing that if AI is going to be The report also voices wari- U.S. President Joe Biden’s AI uses should be off-limits
AI-based tools that categorize used in these human rights ness about tools that try to administration has voiced completely in “democracies
people into clusters such as — very critical — function deduce people’s emotional similar concerns, though it like ours.” She cited social
by ethnicity or gender. areas, that it’s got to be done and mental states by analyz- hasn’t yet outlined a detailed scoring, which can close off
the right way. And we sim- ing their facial expressions approach to curtailing them. someone’s privileges in so-
AI-based technologies can be ply haven’t yet put in place a or body movements, saying A newly formed group called ciety, and the “broad, blanket
a force for good but they can framework that ensures that such technology is suscepti- the Trade and Technology use of remote biometric iden-
also “have negative, even cat- happens.” ble to bias, misinterpretations Council, jointly led by Amer- tification in public space.”

Spain restarts talks to resolve Catalan secession crisis

(AP) — Spain’s prime party in Aragonès’ govern- grassroots groups failed in a authorizing a referendum on Aragonès’ predecessor, Quim
minister and Catalonia’s ment have publicly voiced unilateral breakaway bid that independence, and a general Torra, in February 2020 in
leader met Wednesday their doubts about the chanc- violated the Spanish Consti- amnesty of all those separat- Madrid. The outcome of that
to restart negotiations in es that there will be any real tution. ists in trouble with the law. meeting was to agree to hold
hopes of finding a solu- gains for the separatists. The meetings once a month. But
tion to the ongoing po- influential grassroots group In a bold move to reduce After years of scant dialogue those were put on hold by
litical crisis caused by the National Catalan Assembly tensions, the Socialist leader between Catalonia’s leaders the pandemic, which struck
region’s separatist move- goes further, saying that the took the decision in June to and Spain’s then ruling con- Spain just weeks after.
ment. talks will only serve to derail pardon the nine imprisoned servatives, Sánchez met with
their cause. instigators of the 2017 seces-
Prime Minister Pedro Sán- sion attempt. Both the par-
chez is sitting down with re- The talks come with 7.5 mil- dons and the talks have been
gional president Pere Arago- lion Catalans entrenched into heavily criticized by Spain’s
nès at the seat of the Catalan two roughly equal camps. right-wing parties.
government in downtown Polls and election results over
Barcelona. the past five years consistent- Now, heading into the meet-
ly show that half of Catalonia ing in Barcelona, Sánchez
Expectations are low for wants to remain in Spain, said that he would insist on
any huge advances from the while the other half wants to finding ways to improve the
meeting which has caused sever all ties. economic and social wellbe-
a rift within the separatist ing of Catalans, while firmly
camp. Aragonès and his Re- Sánchez has made finding denying any separatist claims
publican Left of Catalonia a solution to the crisis he to sovereignty.
party call the talks a “historic inherited when he took of-
opportunity.” fice in 2018, not a year after Aragonès has insisted that
the leaders of Catalonia’s the only issues on the table
But leaders of the junior government and separatist are the possibility of Spain