By Dikeledi Molobela
New York, USA — South Africa is calling for a global framework to govern artificial intelligence (AI), warning that the rapid development and spread of the technology requires international guardrails to manage its potential risks.
South Africa’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York, Ambassador Mxolisi Sizo Nkosi, told SAnews that AI governance would be among the issues South Africa raises during the 81st United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), placing the technology firmly within the country’s broader multilateral and foreign policy agenda.
Nkosi said South Africa is concerned about the implications of AI developing without adequate international frameworks to guide its use.
“How AI can really have a devastating impact if we do not have the guardrails, we do not have a framework that really guides the operation, the development and the spread of AI. This is a matter that has been raised not only by governments but also by tech companies themselves, who have really called for the slowing down of AI development due to what they see as the emergence of uncontrolled models and some rogue behaviour by AI systems,” he said.
He said the question of AI governance has become increasingly important as governments and technology companies grappled with the pace at which increasingly powerful systems are being developed.
“The issue of AI governance is very critical.”
South Africa wants the discussion to move beyond technological development towards a global governance framework that can guide the development and use of AI.
Nkosi said South Africa would like to see an outcome from UNGA81 committing countries to work towards such a framework.
“And then, of course, on AI, it's also important that a statement should come out of this General Assembly committing the international community to the development of a framework for global for the global governance of artificial intelligence,” he told SAnews.
The issue comes as the international community continues to debate how to maximise the benefits of AI while addressing risks associated with increasingly powerful systems. UN Secretary-General António Guterres has also called for stronger international cooperation and common safeguards around AI.
For South Africa, the AI debate forms part of a wider argument for a multilateral system capable of responding to technological and economic changes that transcend national borders.
Nkosi said AI would be discussed alongside other major issues on South Africa’s UNGA81 agenda, including international peace and security, climate change, UN reform, inequality and the selection of a new UN Secretary-General.
He said these priorities were aligned with South Africa’s broader foreign policy approach.
“South Africa's foreign policy is predicated on the promotion of peace and security. So, what we are doing here is really aligned with our foreign policy. Other pillars of our foreign policy are around the promotion of respect for human rights, the narrowing of the gap between the developed and developing countries," he said.
He added that South Africa would use various platforms during the high-level week to outline its positions on these issues.
The AI governance push also gives South Africa an opportunity to link the technological debate to questions of development and global inequality, particularly around who benefits from new technologies and who has the capacity to govern them.
For Pretoria, the objective is therefore not only to participate in the global AI conversation, but to contribute to shaping the international rules that will govern the technology. - SAnews.gov.za
