UN panel urges culture-specific SDG as AI, digital divide threaten cultural diversity

At a United Nations high-level interactive dialogue on culture and sustainable development, a panel of artists, civil-society leaders and academics called on member states to treat culture as a distinct pillar of global development and warned that digital technologies — particularly generative artificial intelligence and concentrated online platforms — risk deepening cultural exclusion.

The International Federation of Coalitions for Cultural Diversity (IFCCD) and other speakers urged a specific culture-related Sustainable Development Goal, arguing it would help address imbalances in cultural trade, platform concentration and the digital divide. "Culture and creativity account for 3.1% of global gross domestic product and 6.2% of all employment," IFCCD Secretary General Marie Jolie Desroches said, citing a UNESCO report, and she added that cultural exports reached about $389.1 billion in 2019.

Panelists said those economic figures mask stark representation gaps online and new risks from AI. "The development of generative artificial intelligence is based on the mass pillaging of protected works and the nonconsensual use of the voices and images of artists," Desroches said, adding that dominant digital players can "stifle innovation and limit opportunities for smaller firms." Professor Lance Weiler of Columbia University described the current platforms as "algorithmic tyranny" that flattens nuance and ‘‘monetize[s] us,’’ and he urged investment in community-rooted "creative infrastructure."

Why it matters: panelists linked cultural inclusion to economic opportunity, human rights and…