Meloni at the G7: binding global standards on artificial intelligence are needed

We need "binding global standards" on artificial intelligence to defend truth, work and the centrality of man. This is the message launched by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in her speech at the recent G7 in Evian-les-Bains, published today exclusively by La Stampa.

"Artificial intelligence is not simply yet another industrial revolution; it is the most disruptive technological revolution in the history of mankind," says Meloni, indicating how before it undermines the boundary between true and false.

"Living in a world in which we can no longer distinguish what is true from what is false is simply giving up the basis of democracy." Hence the question to other leaders: "Are we willing to agree binding global standards for the traceability of AI-generated content, or do we let the market decide for itself what counts as true?" According to the Prime Minister, we need a "moral compass" based on a "technological humanism" that keeps "man, his rights and his needs, at the centre". If "the algorithm risks disempowering the intellect" and "the machine risks replacing the worker", politics must defend "this human sovereignty".

There are three "fault lines" indicated by Meloni. The first is work, with the risk that AI deprives man "of his social utility and his very identity" and ends up "emptying and impoverishing our middle class". If labor is replaced on a large scale, he also warns, states lose revenue while value "is concentrated in the hands of a small number of individuals." The second front is AI Agents, autonomous systems that "plan, decide and act" without human supervision step by step. "When one of these agents causes harm, and it will, who is responsible?"

"The honest answer today is: no one." Third node, digital identity and deepfake. "We have the duty to defend personal dignity from degrading forms of manipulation", underlines Meloni, calling for "digital watermarking systems and user certification that protect the truth from the siege of fiction". Finally, global competition. To those who fear that the rules could curb the Western advantage, Meloni asks: "Are we sure it will last?". If AI is “a data multiplier,” he notes, authoritarian regimes could have more of it in the long run, unconstrained by the privacy guarantees of democracies.