UN urges moratorium on use of artificial intelligence technology that imperils human rights

The UN human rights chief is calling for a moratorium on the use of artificial intelligence technology that poses a serious risk to human rights, including face-scanning systems that track people in public spaces.

Michelle Bachelet, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, also said Wednesday that countries should expressly ban AI applications which don't comply with international human rights law.

Applications that should be prohibited include government "social scoring" systems that judge people based on their behavior and certain AI-based tools that categorize people into clusters such as by ethnicity or gender.

AI-based technologies can be a force for good but they can also "have negative, even catastrophic, effects if they are used without sufficient regard to how they affect people's human rights," Bachelet said in a statement.

Her comments came along with a new UN report that examines how countries and businesses have rushed into applying AI systems that affect people's lives and livelihoods without setting up proper safeguards to prevent discrimination and other harms.