The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on Thursday called on governments to fully and immediately implement its recommendation on the ethics of artificial intelligence (AI), following a call by over 1,000 tech workers including Elon Musk for a pause in the training of the most powerful AI systems including ChatGPT.

The recommendation was endorsed by all UNESCO member states in November 2021, and it is the first global framework for the ethical use of AI.

It guides countries in maximizing the benefits of AI and reducing the risks it entails. It contains values and principles, and detailed policy recommendations in all relevant areas. 

"The world needs stronger ethical rules for artificial intelligence: this is the challenge of our time. UNESCO's recommendation on the ethics of AI sets the appropriate normative framework and provides all the necessary safeguards," UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay said in a press release.

According to UNESCO, AI innovations may raise ethical issues, especially discrimination and stereotyping, including the issue of gender inequality. AI may also have a negative impact on the fight against disinformation, the right to privacy, the protection of personal data, and human and environmental rights.

"Industry self-regulation is clearly not sufficient to avoid these ethical harms, which is why the recommendation provides the tools to ensure that AI developments abide by the rule of law, avoiding harm, and ensuring that when harm is done, accountability and redressal mechanisms are at hand for those affected," the organization said.

U.S. advocacy group asks FTC to stop new OpenAI GPT releases

The Center for Artificial Intelligence and Digital Policy (CAIDP), a tech ethics group, is asking the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to stop OpenAI from issuing new commercial releases of GPT-4, which has wowed some users and caused distress for others with its quick and human-like responses to queries.

In a complaint to the agency on Thursday, which is on the group's website, the CAIDP called GPT-4 "biased, deceptive, and a risk to privacy and public safety."

The formal complaint to the FTC follows an open letter signed by Musk, AI experts and industry executives that called for a six-month pause in developing systems more powerful than OpenAI's newly launched GPT-4, citing potential risks to society.

The group in its complaint said OpenAI's ChatGPT-4 fails to meet the FTC's standard of being "transparent, explainable, fair and empirically sound while fostering accountability."

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(With input from agencies)