The Education Committee of the Egyptian Senate agreed on the need to issue a document evaluating the ethics and control of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Egypt.
Headed by MP Nabil Dabes, the Senate’s Education Committee approved the proposal of MP Alaa Mustafa, a member of the Coordination’s Committee of Party’s Youth Leaders and Politicians, regarding the issuance of a document on the ethics of artificial intelligence, to regulate the use and development of AI applications and work to reduce the risks arising from its use and impact on society.
Mustafa submitted a proposal to Senate Speaker Abdel Wahhab Abdel Razek, addressed to the Minister of Communications and Information Technology, that AI is one of the most important and dangerous aspects of the technological revolution.
AI applications impact various aspects of life, he explained, through the creation of hardware and computer programs capable of thinking the same way as the human brain, providing an e-version similar to humans that has the ability to learn and acquire information and the ability to analyze data and information to achieve the task assigned to it.
Despite the many advantages of AI brings in health, education, entertainment and other fields, artificial intelligence, like any emerging technology, is met with wide controversy, Mustafa said.
Many concerns have been raised of its cons and threats, including the ethical risks that may arise from making certain AI applications publicly available to people who misuse it.
Some risks are related to bad actors utilizing malicious applications based AI software which can hack, reveal codes and threaten the accounts of companies, individuals and banks, he said.
In light of the Egyptian government’s interest in keeping pace with the technological revolution, and the tireless efforts made towards building a digital Egypt, the Cabinet in November 2019 approved a draft decision to establish a national council for artificial intelligence.
This council will be affiliated to the Cabinet and develop the national strategy for AI, supervise its implementation, and set up mechanisms to follow it up, in coordination with the various ministries and agencies, Mustafa said.
