Kara Frederick, tech director at the Heritage Foundation, discusses the need for regulations on artificial intelligence as lawmakers and tech titans discuss the potential risks. FIRST ON FOX: A new GOP-led bill aims to stop U.S. tax dollars from going toward a United Nations-run program that uses artificial intelligence to help weed out content deemed to be misinformation or hate speech. Rep. Ben Cline, R-Va., is introducing the End The U.N. Censorship Act this week. AI has emerged as a top priority for lawmakers on Capitol Hill this year. Its advancements, as well as its pitfalls, have inspired a slew of legislation as Washington, D.C., races to get ahead of the rapidly emerging technology.

UNDP has launched a new digital strategy to enhance its support to governments in shifting to this transforming environment including by building digital capacity within the organization. The AI strategy of UNDP seeks to increase the understanding of digital technologies and how they can be used to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. As well as risks and trade-offs that come with them. On the other hand, it is also working to manage the unique ethical issues that can rise from deploying AI in an international development context. The AI readiness tool for stakeholders is building on UNDP's Digital Readiness Assessment piloted.

The Assistant Secretary General and Director of the Regional Bureau for Africa of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Ms. Ahunna Eziakonwa, called on African countries to take advantage of the opportunities offered by digital technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), blockchains and machine learning, and deploy these in various sectors for the achievement of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). She made the call during a panel session at a side event at the 7th Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD7) in Yokohama, Japan. The event, titled "From Idea to Action: Harnessing the Potential of Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) in Africa's Development", was organized by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the World Bank. Ms. Eziakonwa noted that, Africa needs to harness the potential of STI for development by prioritizing policies and making investments to increase access to state-of-the-art technologies such as e-governance, finance and digital literacy and skills – at secondary and TVET (Technical and Vocational Education and Training) level. She called for the adoption of innovative financing schemes that combine both public and private sector resources and technical expertise for the achievement of the three dimensions of sustainable development: economic, social and environment.

I have commented before that the topic of AI Safety should be equally as much about ensuring the field of artificial intelligence is working for important goals such as climate change or reducing inequality. In this regard I find the UNDP strategy of interest. UNDP works to eradicate poverty and reduce inequalities through the sustainable development of nations. This mission is being carried out in more than 170 countries and territories. Quite recently the UNDP launched its digital strategy for 2019–2021.

Bacteria are likely not the first thing to come to mind when contemplating human cultures. Yet biologists cultivate bacteria in a culture in order to watch the community of bacterium interact. This is more than a simple analogy or clever wordplay. In fact, this idea forms the basis of neuroscientist Antonio Damasio's latest book, The Strange Order of Things: Life, Feeling, and the Making of Cultures. Unicellular organisms rely on chemical molecules to sense and respond to their environments. They need to know where to seek nutrients and when to flee from danger.

Sophia is Hanson Robotics' latest and most advanced robot to date and a cultural icon. She has become a media darling, appearing on major media outlets around the world, igniting the interest of people regardless of age, gender, and culture, even gracing the cover of one of the top fashion magazines. Her press coverage has a potential reach of over ten billion readers in 2017. Sophia is a highly sought-after speaker in business and showed her prowess and great potential across many industries. She has met face-to-face with key decision makers in banking, insurance, auto manufacturing, property development, media, and entertainment.

Marking the coming of the fourth industrial revolution, the use of artificial intelligence (AI) is permeating every major industry from healthcare to transportation, education, finance and insurance. The McKinsey Global Institute (pdf) says that AI is contributing to a transformation of society "happening ten times faster and at 300 times the scale or at roughly 3,000 times the impact" of the Industrial Revolution. In the healthcare industry, AI's ability to help clinicians make diagnoses is one major way in which patients are benefiting directly. Technology giant IBM brought AI into the mainstream of healthcare, when it offered its AI platform Watson to cancer centres in 13 countries to aid oncologists in identifying evidence-based treatment options for patients. The promise of AI is not limited to commercial applications.