Future of humanity hinges on AI rules

Artificial intelligence has evolved from machine learning toward deep learning, becoming a transformative force that increasingly shapes our societies. However, this has also generated growing concerns about ethics, governance and human rights.

At the AI Impact Summit held in New Delhi, India, in February, the problems posed by the rapid deployment of AI were viewed from the perspective of the democratization of access to AI resources, which may be regarded as a new right. According to this new right, AI must have a clear social orientation directed toward basic sectors such as education, health and agriculture, and technological security must regulate those applications that pose an existential risk.

It was in this context that Secretary-General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres stated that "the future of artificial intelligence cannot be decided by a handful of countries or left to the whims of a few billionaires".

The human dimension of this debate was the focus of Magnifica Humanitas, Pope Leo XIV's first encyclical letter, which, while acknowledging that technological development has significantly improved human living conditions, notes that it has also revealed the ambiguity of tools that can cause harm when not oriented toward good.

He cautions that emerging technologies, interwoven into the fabric of daily life, are shaping decision-making processes and deeply affecting the collective imagination, and "never has humanity had such power over itself".

With new technologies opening up what the pope described as "a horizon extending in directions that are imaginable but not yet fully predictable", this is already a reality that affects national security, industrial policy and trade, shaping a new geopolitical scenario — in short, a new world order.

For this reason, the effect of AI on human rights has become one of the defining challenges of our time.

International and regional frameworks — including UNESCO's Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's AI Principles, and the European Parliament's guidance — consistently stress human rights, nondiscrimination, transparency, accountability and respect for human dignity throughout the AI life cycle.

Nevertheless, significant challenges remain. Currently, there is no universal regulatory framework regarding the use of AI; regulatory efforts are important, such as the European Union's AI Act. China has also contributed to the international discussion through the Global AI Governance Initiative, which emphasizes a people-centered approach and international cooperation. In Latin America, more regulations governing AI have been adopted at the national level.

However, the reality remains that AI transcends national borders in the digital sphere, and the limits of AI applications are ultimately determined by the deployment of more advanced AI systems.

Under the influence of algorithms or AI decisions, human rights may be subordinated to efficiency, algorithmic bias and a false sense of objectivity.

The safeguarding of human rights depends on the capacity and willingness of states and their governments to exercise their power in this regard. But humanity appears to be losing its decision-making capacity, its ability to resolve conflicts, and its aptitude to prevent environmental catastrophe. We are in danger of power migrating to those who control the technology or, worse still, of allowing technology itself to decide what is best for humanity.

The next question is whether robots should be granted "human" rights or whether, as some researchers predict, humanity is destined or condemned to evolve into a race of man-machines or machine-men, which will model new rights, new personalities and, therefore, a new society that will incorporate a new intelligent social contract, displacing the traditional Rousseauian social contract and replacing the moral, legal, social, economic and political norms that exist.

In light of these scenarios, the true challenge posed by the rise of AI is not merely technological but profoundly human: to ensure that the expansion of AI strengthens individuals and contributes to the common good, without undermining human dignity, individual autonomy, democratic values, the very essence of states and the fundamental rights on which our societies are founded.

The author is the former prime minister, and former minister of justice and human rights, of the Republic of Peru.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

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