Developing countries cannot remain consumers of AI but have to author norms governing the technology’s use, cyber law expert Pavan Duggal says
The Global South cannot merely remain consumers of artificial intelligence but should also author the norms governing the technology, to avoid it being used against their sovereignty and security, an Indian cyber and AI law expert has said.
China, India, and Russia will become integral to this norm-making process, Pavan Duggal told RT on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok.
The Global South can no longer be a mere spectator, but must be “an actual author of the norms for AI before they get crystallized,” Duggal told the gathering on Wednesday. He added that China, India, and Russia represent the collective thought leadership and vision of the Global South and will play a major role in creating the governance framework for AI.
Duggal said that a country’s sovereignty now extends beyond its traditional territorial boundaries and encompasses cyberspace and emerging technologies such as AI. Countries need to create stricter laws for providers of AI services anywhere in the world, as long as the services are delivered within their respective territories.
Nations of the Global South also have to ensure that their data does not fall into other countries’ hands, so it is not used to “prejudicially impact their sovereignty, security, and integrity.”
“We don’t want to be just consumers of AI services provided by someone else and governed by their respective norms,” he told RT.
Duggal’s arguments come at a time when emerging economies are taking a harder look at how to protect their security and economic interests in a turbulent world. A meeting of the national security advisers of the BRICS group in July took a wider view of the security challenges they face, including cybersecurity and emerging technologies that could be exploited by extremist organizations.
Security cooperation is also expected to remain on top of the agenda for the BRICS summit later this month in India.
It is a strategic requirement of sovereign countries that AI must ultimately be accountable, Duggal said. However, he said existing legal frameworks are not adequate to deal with these emerging technologies, because they were drafted keeping in mind the acts of a human versus another human.
Current AI regulations across countries focus on the risks of the technology but don’t deal with making it accountable, he added.
Duggal said countries like India are beginning to see a new trend of “cognitive colonialism,” where people are ready to become “cognitive slaves” of big tech companies so long as their day-to-day work is done by AI.
