What We've Been Reading

Welcome to our roundup of news and current events related to ethics and international affairs! Here’s some of what we’ve been reading this past month:

DW: Top AI executives warn of 'risk of extinction'

A new statement was published by the Center for AI Safety on Tuesday stating, “Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.” This single sentence received hundreds of signatures from academics, policymakers, businesspeople, and others. Among those were Geoffrey Hinton and Yoshua Bengio, two of the three “godfathers” of AI, Demis Hassasbis, CEO of Google’s DeepMind, and Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, the company responsible for ChatGPT. Notably absent from the list was the third ‘godfather’, Yann Le Cun, who currently works for Meta. Yoshua Bengio, director of the Montreal Institute for Learning Algorithms, suggested that AI could pose a threat to the future of humanity if it is given the opportunity to act on real-world dilemmas. AI could pursue actions not in humanity’s best interest or guided by humanity itself. For example, Bengio states that users have already asked ChatGPT for its world domination plans. The EU aims to have regulations in place for AI use by 2026.

Read more about the future of AI on human rights and human empowerment and the dark side of AI in Ethics & International Affairs:

Artificial Intelligence: Power to the People (2019: 33-2)
The Future Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Humans and Human Rights (2019: 33-2)
Engines of Patriarchy: Ethical Artificial Intelligence in Times of Illiberal Backlash Politics (2021: 35-3)

NPR: A new anti-gay law in Uganda calls for life in prison for those who are convicted

On Monday, Ugandan President, Yoweri Museveni, signed into law the Anti-homosexuality act, one of the world’s toughest laws on homosexuality. While homosexuality was already illegal in Uganda, the act introduces more punishments for different types of relations. “Aggravated homosexuality,” defined as same-sex relations involving HIV-positive people, children or other vulnerable people, can be given a prison sentence of up to 14 years and, potentially, the death penalty. Ugandans who engage in gay sex can receive a life sentence, while anyone engaging in same-sex relations can receive up to 10 years in prison. The law was amended in March after international outrage and donors threatened to leave the country. The amendment meant that identifying as LGBTQ is not illegal, although any associated sexual acts are illegal. Many countries and international organizations have condemned the act, including U.S. President Joe Biden.

Read more about human rights, state violence, and universal values in Ethics & International Affairs:

Human Rights in the Seventy-Fifth Year of the UN (2020: 34-3)
Rethinking the Nature of States and Political Violence (2021: 35-1)
Constructing Universal Values? A Practical Approach (2020: 34-3)

The Washington Post: Two journalists stand trial in Iran for stories that sparked protests

Elahe Mohammadi, a reporter with Iran's Ham-Mihan newspaper, and Niloofar Hamedi, of Shargh newspaper, are currently standing trail for reporting on the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman. She died in September 2022 while under the custody of the Iranian morality police. Her death sparked massive protests in the country, and now Mohammadi and Hamedi are being held, officially charged with “colluding with hostile powers,” specifically the U.S. CIA. The charge is punishable by a long prison sentence or even the death penalty. While Mohammadi and Hamedi have denied the charge, they have been held for days in solitary confinement and interrogated without lawyers ahead of the trials. Their lawyers also have not been given access to the case files, and their families are barred from the courthouse for the trials.

Read more about the women-led uprising in Iran's Islamic Republic, violence from a feminist perspective, and neglected women’s rights in Ethics & International Affairs:

The Women-Led Uprising and Iran’s Islamic Republic (2022)
Continuums of Violence and Peace: A Feminist Perspective (2020: 34-1)
The Neglected North Korean Crisis: Women's Rights (2021: 35-1)

Reuters: Serbia, Kosovo presidents clash at summit over flare-up

Serbia's President, Aleksandar Vucic, and Kosovo's President, Vjosa Osmani, attended a summit in Moldova, clashing over the latest conflict in northern Kosovo. Northern Kosovo, which is predominantly ethnically Serbian, recently had an election for new mayors, which most of the Serbian population boycotted. With a turnout of 3.5 percent, the Kosovo government still took to appointing the mayors, who were ethnically Albanian, with the presence of Kosovo special police units. The ethnic Serbian population took to protesting the appointments, resulting in clashes. Fifty-two Serb protestors and thirty NATO peacekeepers were injured. Osmani claims that Serbia’s refusal to recognize Kosovo as an independent state continues to trigger these clashes, while Vucic said the special military units were there illegally and the mayors should be removed. At the summit, there was no indication that Vucic and Osmani would meet with each other. NATO is preparing to send an additional 700 peacekeepers in an effort to help de-escalate the situation.

Read more about how R2P has changed in the past twenty years, how to decide what to protect, and (un)civil resistance in Ethics & International Affairs:

The Responsibility to Protect in a Changing World Order: Twenty Years since Its Inception (2021: 35-2)
Where to Protect? Prioritization and the Responsibility to Protect (2021: 35-2)
The Ethics of (Un)Civil Resistance (2019: 33-3)