IGF 2023 Lightning Talk #132 Global South perspectives on governing AI

Time
Sunday, 8th October, 2023 (08:50 UTC) - Sunday, 8th October, 2023 (09:10 UTC)
Room
SC – Room H
Theme
AI & Emerging Technologies

Digital Rights Foundation
Irum Shujah, Digital Rights Foundation Nighat Dad, Digital Rights Foundation Shmyla Khan, Digital Rights Foundation Seerat Khan, Digital Rights Foundation

Speakers

Irum Shujah, Digital Rights Foundation, Civil Society, South Asia

Onsite Moderator

Nighat Dad

Online Moderator

Seerat Khan

Rapporteur

Shmyla Khan

SDGs

9. Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure

Targets: 9.2 Promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and, by 2030, significantly raise industry’s share of employment and gross domestic product, in line with national circumstances, and double its share in least developed countries 9.b Support domestic technology development, research and innovation in developing countries, including by ensuring a conducive policy environment for, inter alia, industrial diversification and value addition to commodities 9.c Significantly increase access to information and communications technology and strive to provide universal and affordable access to the Internet in least developed countries by 2020

Format

The session will consist of a lightning talk by DRF's legal manager who will give a presentation for 15 minutes, during which participants will send short 1-sentence questions that will be answered in the last 5 minutes.

Duration (minutes)
20
Language
English
Description

Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) is a rapidly emerging technology which is developing and transforming various sectors of society at an unprecedented rate. This, in turn, is severely affecting the world, and different sectors of the world have already started experiencing a significant trend of advancement, introducing revolutionary changes within the framework of all the fields. Although this advancement brings about various positive outcomes, it is important to recognize that these trends can also be potential threats to privacy rights and online data safety. If seen closely, the social harm(s) of AI has a multi-sectoral impact, with economic and social dimensions being a part of the same. This discussion aims to bring together legal trainers who may then elaborate upon the emerging AI's legal and social impact within different regions, including but not limited to Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas. Therefore, this proposed session will have experts from Digital Rights Foundation expound upon the: (i) the social and legal impact of the evolving world of AI, (ii) regulatory approaches to AI in South Asian countries, (iii) understanding the push towards “global regulations” and the impact of the EU AI Act for the rest of the world.. To conclude, the proposed lightning talk primarily aims at initiating a dialogue between the relevant stakeholders about Internet governance. It further serves as an opportunity to explore implementing an upgraded legal model through enacting legislative instruments and other rational measures influenced by international laws and regulations.

DRF has significant experience with hybrid sessions, including at IGF 2022 and particularly at RightsCon 2023 with moderators from the organisation both onsite and online. Having personnel and quick input tools like surveys and question/answer tools dedicated to input from online participants will be the key to this session. The session will be designed in a way that the presentation during the talk is shared simultaneously with participants online while at the same time projected onsite. Furthermore, the moderators will allow for questions to be taken, and equal time will be given to questions both online and offline. Furthermore, participants will be surveyed on which country and stakeholder group they represent as they enter both the virtual and physical room; these results will be shown during the session to engage participants on both sides and give them an idea of who is in both virtual and physical rooms.