ITU Members Agreed on Commitments Around AI and Metaverse

ITU members accepted commitments on priorities to ensure advanced technologies, including AI and metaverse, contribute to a sustainable digital future. The members said they would focus on these commitments over the next four years.

The body stated the priorities were agreed upon during the World Telecommunication Standardisation Assembly (WTSA) in India, with the event reinforcing its objective of meeting fast-evolving global needs. The ITU settled on eight wide-ranging areas including prioritizing safe and responsible use of AI, interoperable and inclusive metaverse applications, technical requirements for digital public infrastructure, deployments of communications technologies in automated driving and other digital industries use cases, as well as encouraging sustainable digital transformation across multiple industries and technologies.

It will also focus on preparing new generations of talent to support its standardization work and explore the application of caller-location information in the event of an emergency. The ITU is also committed to meeting new policy objectives and market demand in its resolutions. Before the agreement, the UN organization established multiple study groups and dedicated each to exploring specific themes spanning security, future network technologies to IoT, and economic and policy issues, adding the new resolutions emphasize support for developing countries.

The ITU also pointed to India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s work in highlighting the importance of universal connectivity, ethical AI, consensus decisions, and meaningful digital inclusion during the opening of the conference. “ITU standards and capacity development must create the foundation for the digital future we want,” said the director of the ITU telecommunication standardization bureau Seizo Onoe. “The decisions of WTSA highlight ITU membership’s commitment to these goals.”