Futures Digest

In a significant call for action, The Millennium Project, in collaboration with the World Futures Studies Federation (WFSF) and the World Academy of Art and Science (WAAS), sent an open letter to the incoming President of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), His Excellency Mr. Philémon Yang, on September 9. The letter addresses the urgent need for governance in the rapidly evolving fields of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its upcoming Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).

Current efforts in governing the field focus on addressing the proliferation of Artificial Narrow Intelligence (ANI) technologies, which are widespread today. However, there is often insufficient attention to the distinction between ANI and its potential evolutions into AGI and Artificial Superintelligence (ASI), as outlined in the scenarios included in the “Work/Tech 2050” study by The Millennium Project, and to the development of global governance models for the transition to AGI, which is the subject of an ongoing study by the same organization.

Signed by 230 political, business, and academic leaders from around the globe, the letter expresses growing concerns about the safety and governance of the transition to AGI, a form of AI expected to emerge within the next decade. Unlike current AI systems—referred to as ANI, which excel in specific tasks—AGI would possess the ability to learn and perform a wide range of cognitive tasks, eventually surpassing human intelligence.