IGF 2019 WS #414
Discussing strategies for a human-centric A.I.

Subtheme

Organizer 1: Luisa Verónica Arroyo Revatta, Access Now / Youth Observatory
Organizer 2: Juliana Novaes, Youth@IGF
Organizer 3: Ana Carolina Rodrigues Dias Silveira, Internet Society Youth@IGF
Organizer 4: Isabela Inês Bernardino de Souza Silva, Federal University of Pernambuco

Speaker 1: Bruna Santos , Civil Society, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
Speaker 2: Desh Deepak Dwivedi, Private Sector, Asia-Pacific Group
Speaker 3: Aaranson Susan , Civil Society, Intergovernmental Organization
Speaker 4: Franz von Weizsaecker, Government, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)

Moderator

Ana Carolina Rodrigues Dias Silveira, Civil Society, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)

Online Moderator

Juliana Novaes, Civil Society, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)

Rapporteur

Isabela Inês Bernardino de Souza Silva, Civil Society, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)

Format

Round Table - Circle - 90 Min

Policy Question(s)

- Ethical, legal and regulatory dimensions for Artificial Intelligence: Is it possible to conciliate the development of this technology with the creation of ethical criteria? What can we learn from the strategies created by some countries? Do these strategies contribute to a digital human-centric economy?

- Reducing the Digital Divide and the Data Concentration: How can the Global South countries use the development of A.I. to reduce the digital divide and to increase their economic competitiveness? To what extent can the strategies for development A.I. facilitate common approaches and interoperability of data protection frameworks, and also facilitate international trade and cooperation?

SDGs

GOAL 4: Quality Education
GOAL 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
GOAL 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
GOAL 10: Reduced Inequalities
GOAL 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities

Description: In order to properly introduce these perspectives, each speaker will have 10 or 15 minutes to make an initial statement during the appropriate phase of the agenda. Planned interventions from the audience are designed to happen after each of the discussion sections and will be conceded at time in order to permit fruitful exchanges between onsite audience and speakers.

The proposed speakers are youth leaders in the IG ecosystem and come from a range of stakeholder groups — government, private sector, and civil society.

Introduction (5 minutes)

Part I: Impacts of A.I in the world economy (15 minutes)
Part II: A.I Strategies around the world (10 minutes)
Debate (15 minutes)

Part III: The role of the Global South in the A.I economy race( 15 minutes)
Part IV: A.I from a human rights perspective (10 minutes)
Debate (15 minutes)

Part V: Closing (5 minutes)



Expected Outcomes: The main objective of this session is to work on important issues of Internet Governance and the intersection with the Digital Economy.

In addition, a short report and videos on this panel will be produced to disseminate the issues discussed among members of the community and beyond.

The objective of this session is to analyze and discuss the socio-economic impacts of the Cognitive Computing Era, especially in the Global South, and disseminate these issues through content accessible to people outside of Internet Governance community.

The structure of this roundtable is intended to foster an inclusive conversation and promote constructive exchanges between discussants and other round table participants. In order to promote an informal discussion on the proposed topics between onsite and online audience and to allow interventions, online participation will be facilitated. The workshop will be divided into five parts. The audience will be invited to intervene at any time, but there will also be specific debate moments.

- The opportunity for Q&A will also extend to remote participants, who will be given the opportunity to ask questions through the dedicated online forum.
- All of the session organizers have abundant experience managing remote participation in the Youth Observatory and ISOC context and will have no trouble facilitating remote participation.
- In addition to the aforementioned fora, we will also promote a dedicated hashtag so that the panelists, audience members, and online participants can discuss the issues raised in real time on a more widely accessible medium.
- A collaborative document will gather these records of comments and questions during and after the workshop, to be later integrated into the report. A variety of media can also serve as background material for this debate, based on previous workshops. Remote participation tools will ensure an inclusive, accessible, and global audience both via the IGF online participation tools and Youth Observatory online discussion forums.

Relevance to Theme: This proposal aims to discuss the strategies for the development of "Artificial Intelligence" that have been adopted by several countries, considering relevant aspects of Data Governance.

There is a race around the development of A.I. Several countries, such as China, USA, Germany, France etc., are creating strategies to develop A.I., which funnel money into education, research, and development to kick-start this technology. Certainly, becoming a leader in A.I. will define positions that each country will exercise in the new geoeconomy.

Most of these strategies, however, are thought from a military perspective. Therefore, we must discuss how to establish criteria and principles to promote the development of a human-centric AI, based on ethical values, transparency and accountability criteria that guarantee freedom of expression, protection of personal data, gender equality, racial diversity, as well as dealing with issues such as the future of work. The AI can empower the civil society and organizations.

In addition, in the context of the new geoeconomics relations, there is a concern that the countries of the Global South could follow this race, to avoid the technologically dependence and to promote the reduction of the digital divide. Thus, this panel also proposes to promote this theme among the Global South community.


Relevance to Internet Governance: The proposal of this panel is extremely relevant for Internet Governance, since it intends to analyze and discuss, concretely, the strategies that have been adopted by several countries for the development of Artificial Intelligence. By doing it, we can also help and lead the political efforts to use the power of AI to create a safer and egalitarian society.

On the one hand, this discussion involves issues such as data governance, promotion of ethical values, protection of human rights etc. On the other hand, it also involves geoeconomic issues.

If our intention is to bring people to the center of the future of digital economy, we have to discuss how the strategies that countries are creating for the development of A.I. could be better suited to this objective. The IGF would be an opportunity to gather the multistakeholders for this important debate.

Online Participation

The opportunity for Q&A will also extend to remote participants, who will be given the opportunity to ask questions through the dedicated online forum.


Proposed Additional Tools: We will also promote a dedicated hashtag so that the panelists, audience members, and online participants can discuss the issues raised in real time on a more widely accessible medium.