As 2024 is officially in the history books one has to acknowledge the unprecedented growth that AI had throughout the year. As more and more tech giants invested in the newest AI technology already governments around the globe fear for its unrestricted use by passing bills which limit AI’s power and regulate its use for the common man. This dual relationship of hopeful growth and fear of the unknown potential that AI has to offer, is the stigma that the human kind brought to the new year. Indeed, there is a need, greater than ever, to critically evaluate ai as the cases of it breaching our code of ethics vary from government institutions to college academia. What must be done is a great “Reset” so artificial intelligence can help foster humanities’ goals and make them more achievable rather to threaten humanity itself. It has proven to be an ally, consequently this essay will highlight not only the areas in which AI was considered a threat during the year that passed but also where AI was a genuine helping force for mankind and how to further foster that relationship during 2025.

While it is desirable to use AI as an ally, firstly we must take into account its implications regarding ethics, algorithm biased and privacy violations. One doesn’t have to look further than ChatGPT, the most popular and accessible use of artificial intelligence by everyday people. After closely inspecting its privacy policy it becomes evident that OpenAI (the firm responsible for ChatGPT) has access to every single piece of information fed into the program and can manipulate it as they please [1]. This does not only create evident privacy concerns, as people share highly sensitive information with ChatGPT in order to solve their problems but also sets the norm for AI programs of similar nature to behave the same way and collect the personal information of their users. Furthermore, the argument can be made that since this is a policy that users “agree” when signing up to use ChatGPT, they are aware of their data being collected in this way. However, this doesn’t reverse the malicious character of the policy and hardly any people read the terms and conditions when signing up for anything these days. To further highlight the dangers of this policy we must take into consideration that its effects are already evident as OpenAI has actually been sued just because of this policy, as it caused copyrighted infringement, led by a coalition of news agencies with the New York times taking the initiative [2].

AI concerns unfortunately are not limited to just individuals and their privacy but also to government institutions. The technology of artificial intelligence has advanced to the point where some countries fear for the continuation of their democracy in their political systems as some individuals within it exploit it for their personal gains. This is the case of Moldova whose elections took place in 2024. While the leaders of the parties were campaigning, today’s opposition used artificial intelligence to portray a pro-western leader expressing support for Russia damaging that way her reputation until the video was indeed deemed a deepfake [3]. Slovakia also suffered from a similar case as a fake audio clip was created of the leader of the liberal party talking about alleged intentions to rig the elections [4]. Both examples indicate how vulnerable we are as individuals and as political institutions to the increasing abilities of AI, especially when ambiguity is weaponized by it. The electoral process of two countries could have been completely different if AI wasn’t detected as the source for the two clips previously mentioned. This highlights even further the urgency and the importance for a great “reset” in our approach to AI as well as the absence of international standards and regulations for it.

However, not all seems dim when it comes to our relationship with AI. While in 2024 we became aware of the potential for harm that ai is capable of, we also experienced growth in complex sectors like healthcare mostly because of AI. One such example comes from the Uk. Specifically, two universities trained an AI software to be able to detect the time-lapse of a stroke patient in order to determine how much time has passed since the incident occurred. This is crucial information for a doctor to know since depending on the time that the stroke first took place the patient is determined eligible for surgery. The results stunned the researchers as the AI software was deemed twice as effective as a human doctor and it was implemented in over 2.000 patients [5].This example taps into the immense potential that AI has when it comes to aiding our ambitions as a whole. Its ability to identify gaps where human intellect isn’t aware of, along with proper training by professionals in every respective field could help us solve worldwide problems in the near future where our ancestors couldn’t even tackle due to their lack of resources.

Because of the identifiable problems that AI presents and our ambition to use it for our benefit, a clear “reset” must be achieved so that dream can finally become a reality. For this to be achieved it is a necessity that the international community must come together and draft a regulatory body, under the umbrella of the United Nations, with its sole purpose being the regulation of AI and our advancement as a species alongside it. This regulatory body will have the benefit of voicing every nation’s unique concerns regarding AI and adopting the best possible solutions for them through a democratic voting process. Only through the United Nations can something like this be achieved since it has brought the international community together beforehand and achieved solutions that benefited the whole of mankind, such as voting on UN resolution for nuclear ban treaty [6]. It goes without saying that challenges will occur. Authoritarian regimes may resist cooperation or even tech giants may try to find loopholes but as shown before with the nuclear ban treaty, sustained diplomacy can overcome even the toughest challenges. Furthermore, there is a deep need to actually train the people responsible for government policies on AI, the policy makers, so that they can come up with spherical approaches on how to deal with imminent AI challenges. Such training programs can be decided through the UN lead regulatory body and be voted to be implemented throughout the world, further stretching the importance for the creation of such a body.

In conclusion, the year that passed highlighted not only the dual relationship we have with AI but also the need for its regulation. While AI has shown genuine potential to better our lives as seen in the health care sector, it has also shown its far from perfect as seen by its manipulation in the electoral process of both Slovakia and Moldova. Its evident that we need a drastic “Reset” in our relationship with AI and something like this can be possible only through an international regulatory body hosted in the UN. In the case of inaction, we can expect the worst as AI’s abilities are ever more increasing and if unregulated so will its means for harm. However, it seems possible that 2025 will be the dawn of the era of human collaboration for our common interests and we will prosper more than ever as a species with the help of Al.

Spyros Tsaparas is an undergraduate student majoring in International Relations and European Affairs at the American College of Greece - Deree

References

Bhaskar, Chakravorti. “AI’s Trust Problem.” Harvard Business Review, May 3, 2024. https://hbr.org/2024/05/ais-trust-problem.

I.C.A.N. “Voting on UN Resolution for Nuclear Ban Treaty.” ICAN, December 23, 2016. file:///C:/Users/Spyros/Zotero/storage/VVW7VABY/voting_on_un_resolution_for_nuclear_ban_treaty.html.

Maslov, Sasha. “The Times Sues OpenAI and Microsoft Over A.I. Use of Copyrighted Work.” The New York Times, December 28, 2023, sec. Business. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/27/business/media/new-york-times-open-ai-microsoft-lawsuit.html.

North, Madeleine. “5 Ways AI Is Transforming Healthcare.” World Economic Forum, January 22, 2025. https://www.weforum.org/stories/2025/01/ai-transforming-global-health/.

OpenAI. “ChatGPT’s Privacy Policy.” ChatGPT, January 31, 2024. https://openai.com/en-GB/policies/row-privacy-policy/.

Swenson, Ali, and Kelvin Chan. “Election Disinformation Takes a Big Leap with AI Being Used to Deceive Worldwide.” AP News, March 14, 2024. https://apnews.com/article/artificial-intelligence-elections-disinformation-chatgpt-bc283e7426402f0b4baa7df280a4c3fd.

[1] OpenAI, “ChatGPT’s Privacy Policy.”

[2] Maslov, “The Times Sues OpenAI and Microsoft Over A.I. Use of Copyrighted Work.”

[3] Bhaskar, “AI’s Trust Problem.”

[4] Swenson and Chan, “Election Disinformation Takes a Big Leap with AI Being Used to Deceive Worldwide.”

[5] North, “5 Ways AI Is Transforming Healthcare.”

[6] I.C.A.N., “Voting on UN Resolution for Nuclear Ban Treaty.”