Ms HALLGRIMSDÓTTIR said it was bad, but she found there was also hope in the interconnectedness between the triple planetary crisis and human rights. An even more environmentally friendly world was also a better world for each person, regarding human rights and vice versa. Conquering the triple planetary crisis would have a great impact on human rights in general, and then they could keep on advancing in both spheres at the same time. She emphasised that they could not be thinking about this in separate matters, since both exacerbated and could also help them solve the other issues. This was an opportunity to advance on all fronts at the same time. Ms SMUHA put her hope in the Council of Europe, which was developing this Convention, which was a huge opportunity to set the boundaries now for the decades to come. She urged them not to mess up the opportunity but to make the most of it. She recommended ensuring that safeguards were in place that were future proof, because, while technology would evolve, they needed a broad scope so that it was not immediately outdated. The good thing with the Council of Europe's negotiations, she said, was that other countries like the United States, Canada, Israel or Mexico were around the table and were willing to potentially sign this Convention. It could have a huge effect. However, she concluded that also meant that there needed to be a balancing act since they might not necessarily have the same scope in mind. They needed to get the most out of it, with hopefully the most States around the table. There was a glimmer of hope if they were bold now and took a stance on what they wanted, and did not want, with AI. Ms BRANDS KEHRIS said the mention of fear linked back to the question on the empathy and compassion that was needed, since the technology did not have it, and therefore, it would come back to the human being. She also wondered where the empathy had gone from among them as human beings. She said that there was a general fear of social and economic insecurities that so many felt more than before and which had worsened in recent years to the point that the UN language said “we are leaving no one behind”. Yet, those who were the most marginalised were not even visible, even now. They did not yet have the data on it, and tensions were increasing in societies. She said peace and security challenges came on top of that. She thought hope could actually come from technology, and that they should not only position a fear of the risks of AI as something that they therefore avoided. Human beings had to use it for the best. A Norwegian military representative she recently met shared an example of an AI programme with an enhanced reality experience that they had developed, to put a soldier in the shoes of a victim of a member of a population under attack, to develop empathy, and in order to understand that they were not so distant with all of the far away technologies they were using. She said they often forget that it was human beings they were talking about. Her final point was about the political leadership that was needed to tackle the fundamental issues of trust in our society, and she asked how to rebuild that trust. This would lead to the conventions and other instruments that would help. Mr KOX said he was born an optimist and would die an optimist, even he could not deny that they were living in challenging, extremely dangerous times where things could get awfully out of hand. He also reminded the room that they were human beings. Everything that they were confronted with was man- or woman-made. It could be changed both for the better and the worst. The moment that they thought this was undoable, and the challenges too big, such as climate change, pollution, the loss of biodiversity, the danger of artificial intelligence, all being too huge, he recommended forgetting their humility and becoming proud. He harked back to when the Council of Europe was founded, at a moment when the whole continent was in ruins, and talk was about when the Third World War would start in days, in weeks or in months. It was clear then that there was no solution to solve these problems, he said, but they did. Mr KOX said there had been 75 years of peace overall. The Human Rights Convention was developed. The Statute of the Council of Europe said that democracy, rule of law and human rights would be the basis of a united Europe. They were delivering together on these issues. Saying there was no hope was an abuse of one’s right as a human being, because there was always hope. He said it was a matter of doing it.

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