The Islamic Military Counter Terrorism Coalition held today at its HQ an event on “Artificial Intelligence, its evolution, principles and uses" delivered by Dr. Abdulqader Al-Fantoukh, Prof. of computer science and general manager of Toaq Research Company.
The speaker began his presentation by defining AI, its applications, types, technologies, strategic importance and the great efforts made by the Kingdom in this field. Meanwhile, he also touched upon the dangers, future, ethical issues, posed by AI and its uses in the domain of communications and counter-terrorism.
The event was attended by IMCTC Secretary General, Maj. Gen. Mohammed bin Saeed Al-Moghedi, Member of States' Delegates and IMCTC personnel. Dr. Alfantokh proposed the use of a new coined term “ Aldhukan" for Artificial Intelligence in Arabic and called for the adoption of its use as part of new, short, easy to pronounce, technical term in our everyday life.
“The AI, which we are defining today, as a machine intelligence that mimic the human brain, using Deep Learning skills, self-improvement, super ability to retrieve, recall, swift decision-making without being influenced by emotion or ideological bias, will soon become a super machine intelligence with great capabilities in understanding and perception" he said.
He further added that AI will soon surpass human intelligence in its precision, speed, innovation, and will greatly affect most of our daily life aspects, on the one hand, and poses, at the same time, a potential threat to humanity by taking control of many aspects of our lives in broad areas.
Dr. Al-Fantoukh explored the types of AI, cognitive aspects such as self-learning, development, inference, assimilation of knowledge, science and auto-correction.
He pointed out that AI is able to deconstruct, understand, generate natural languages, and human civilization.
Dr. Alfantokh pointed out on the strategic importance of intelligence and its role in improving the economic status, public safety, health, creation of jobs, building knowledge economies, and enhancing the quality of life.
He commended the Kingdom's efforts in owning this technology until it culminated in culminated in the establishment of the Saudi Authority for Data and Artificial Intelligence, to be ranked number one in the Arab world and 22nd globally in the Global Index of Artificial Intelligence.
He presented examples of AI applications in communications, including;
- Automated data/information analysis, with no emotional and ideological bias.
- Use of robots in media editing, and presenting news inside the news-broadcasting studio.
- Verification of fact, fake news, photos and videos.
- Autonomous chat to answer audience inquiries and comments.
- Professional handling of news stories, analysis of complex trends of events in a fast and predictive manner.
Further, Dr. Al-Fantoukh explored opportunities offered by AI in countering terrorism through the prediction of terrorist attacks, identification of red flags, detection of erroneous information and misleading content posted by terrorists and the ability to take it down, in addition to the provision of big data analysis.
And in light of the accelerating pace of AI progress, he highlighted its ability to make autonomous decisions, generation of ideas and self-development.
The speaker called for the development of a global code of ethics for AI uses that maximizing its benefits and mitigate its dangers. Such AI potential risks have prompted a group of prominent leaders and experts in the technology sector to sign an open letter in which they warned against such perils. He added that the code of ethics should focus on adherence to principles of integrity, equity, privacy, security, accountability, responsibility, reliability and safety, as well as transparency and social benefits in the use and development of AI.
Finally, Dr. Al-Fantoukh pointed out to the warning made by the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, declaring that as AI an existential threat to humanity on bar with risk of nuclear war, and called for the creation of a multilateral body, similar to the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for AI to help regulate the fast-growing technology.
He concluded his presentation by offering a set of recommendations relevant to the use of AI in counterterrorism domains.