Al-Mahfouz Bin Bayyah
By Emmanuel Abi Couson
Artificial intelligence is a vital technology that could be deployed for the promotion of global peace and it’s benefits as well as reducing the facets of danger and harm, in a quest for global peace.
His Excellency Sheikh Al-Mahfouz bin Bayyah, Secretary-General of the Abu Dhabi Peace Forum, stated this in his speech at the closing session of the historic multi-religious conference held on July 9 and 10 in the Japanese city of Hiroshima with the title “The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence in the Service of Peace: The World’s Religions Commit to the Rome Call,”
Also in attendance was Excellency Mr. Taro Kono, Japanese Minister of Digital Transformation , Mr. Brad Smith, President of Microsoft Corporation, His Eminence Yoshiharu Tomatsu, President of Religions for Peace – Japan, His Eminence Bishop Buckleya, President of the Pontifical Academy for Life, and several figures representing the religions of the East.
He reinterated the Forum’s participation in this important historical event as an embodiment of the vision of the United Arab Emirates, which has made civilizational partnership its approach, and human being and his happiness its goal, and that the UAE is resolved with confidence to assume its pioneering role in shaping the future of humanity.
Bin Bayyah also stated that the UAE’s leadership in the field of artificial intelligence, which has today become the subject of international recognition and acclaim, stems not only from its unprecedented level of investment in these new technologies, the establishment of the necessary infrastructure, and the development of regulating laws and legislation, but also stems from integrating this vision into the global peace strategy framework, by making sure to frame this development with the principles of human values that ensure that science is focused on making peace, and that technologies aim to help humans.
The Secretary-General also quoted what His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAE President, stated at the G20 Rome: “Handling emerging technologies in a responsible and ethical way makes them a source of sustainable development, security and prosperity for all”
Sheikh Mahfouz bin Bayyah reiterated the Abu Dhabi Peace Forum’s commitment to the Rome Charter for AI Ethics, recalling that the Forum was the first representative institution of Islam and the Arab world to engage in this joint humanitarian effort that aims to establish legislative frameworks guided by values and visions, to be a lighthouse and guide for AI developers, and to help them respond to the requirements of ethics, without preventing them from achieving creativity and innovation.
He lauded the efforts made by the Religion and Civil Society Commission on Artificial Intelligence, which he chairs, in the United Kingdom and the path of partnerships and cooperation it has undertaken since its establishment in December last year.
During his talk about the centrality of the vision of peace, Bin Bayyah stressed that there is no alternative to peace except annihilation, calling for cooperation to survive no matter how widespread the wars are and how intense the conflicts become, explaining that the peace that the UAE seeks in the world, and within which the forum navigates, is the emergence of a human being with a new mentality, a new vision towards the world, based on the values of peace, virtue and mercy, so that he can rebuild himself and his relationships with his own people and with people from other nations.
