IGF 2023 WS #465 International multistakeholder cooperation for AI standards

Time
Wednesday, 11th October, 2023 (23:30 UTC) - Thursday, 12th October, 2023 (01:00 UTC)
Room
WS 4 – Room B-1

Organizer 1: Florian Ostmann, The Alan Turing Institute
Organizer 2: arcangelo leone de castris, The Alan Turing Institute
Organizer 3: Ana Alania, The Alan Turing Institute
Organizer 4: Nalanda Sharadjaya, The Alan Turing Institute

Speaker 1: Nikita Bhangu, Government, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 2: Ashley Casovan, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 3: Jacquet Aurelie, Technical Community, Asia-Pacific Group
Speaker 4: Sundeep Bhandari, Technical Community, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 5: Sahar Danesh, Private Sector, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)

Additional Speakers

Wan Sie Lee - Singapore Government (Asia-Pacific). 

Moderator

Florian Ostmann, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)

Online Moderator

Ana Alania, Technical Community, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)

Rapporteur

arcangelo leone de castris, Technical Community, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)

Format

Other - 90 Min
Format description: The workshop will be structured as follows: Presentation on the work of the AI Standards Hub (20 minutes) Panel discussion (45 minutes) Audience participation via Q&A (25 minutes) Seating should be arranged theatre-style, with space for the speakers and panellists on stage or at the front of the room. The presentation on the AI Standards Hub will feature the following speakers: Florian Ostmann (The Alan Turing Institue), Sahar Danesh (BSI), and Sundeep Bhandari (NPL). For the panel discussion, Florian Ostmann will be the onsite moderator and the following speakers have confirmed their participation at the time of submitting this proposal: Ashley Casovan (Responsible AI Institute, Canada), Aurelie Jacquet (CSIRO, Australia), and Nikita Bhangu (The UK Government, The UK). In addition, we are in contact with potential speakers representing perspectives from Japan and Singapore and are confident that we will be able to confirm their participation closer to the date.

Policy Question(s)

1) What is the role of international standards in the governance of AI technologies, and what is the importance of multi-stakeholder participation and international cooperation for achieving sound and effective standards and regulatory interoperability for AI? 2) What challenges do different stakeholder groups face when it comes to engaging with AI standardisation, and how can multistakeholder participation in standards development be advanced? 3) What strategies can be adopted to strengthen international cooperation between civil society, technical communities, the private sector, and governments to develop sound and effective standards for AI?

What will participants gain from attending this session? - Understanding of the role that standards will play in achieving an effective international system for the governance of AI technologies. - Understanding how standards can foster the sustainable development and use of AI technologies. - Understanding why multistakeholder participation and international cooperation are essential to develop successful AI standards and what strategies can help pursue this objective. - Detailed knowledge of the UK’s AI Standards Hub as a concrete example of how such strategies can be implemented and of the opportunities that they unlock.

SDGs

Description:

This workshop introduces the AI Standards Hub as a case study to consider strategies for multistakeholder participation and international cooperation around the development of standards for AI technologies. AI is set to be the technology driving the next cycle of social and industrial evolution. AI’s transformative potential and its risks call for the development of effective global frameworks and norms - a complex international policy challenge over the next decade.  There is growing recognition that international standardisation will be a critical component of mature AI governance approaches. At the same time, realising the potential of international AI standards depends on broad international cooperation and multistakeholder participation in the development of standards. Only in this way can AI standards find wide adoption and achieve technical and regulatory interoperability.  Taking stock of the above considerations, this workshop will examine what strategies can be adopted to strengthen both international cooperation and multi-stakeholder collaboration across civil society, the technical community, industry, and government. The workshop will start with a presentation of the AI Standards Hub: a joint initiative led by The Alan Turing Institute, the British Standards Institute and the National Physical Laboratory, and supported by the UK Government. The Hub is a first-of-its-kind initiative to advance the participation of multiple stakeholders from civil society, academia, and industry in AI standardisation processes. After the presentation, a panel of speakers from different regions will discuss the role of international cooperation and multistakeholder participation in AI standardisation, drawing on lessons from the AI Standards Hub. Finally, provided that a key aim of this workshop is to collectively learn from diverse perspectives, we will conclude with an interactive session where moderators will invite online and in-person participants from different regional backgrounds and stakeholder groups to contribute to an inclusive and mutually enriching discussion.

Expected Outcomes

Insights from this workshop will feed into a report by The Alan Turing Institute identifying priorities for international cooperation and recommendations for multistakeholder engagement in AI standardisation. Additionally, a summary of the workshop and key takeaways will be published on the AI Standards Hub website and distributed through our newsletter and social media channels, reaching thousands of engaged stakeholders. We hope our discussions will catalyse novel forms of multistakeholder engagement and international cooperation and encourage similar initiatives around the world. We expect that they will result in new forms of collaboration between countries embarking on similar initiatives around AI standardisation and establish pathways for international knowledge exchange within this field. Learnings from the session will also directly inform our ongoing work on addressing the challenges of different stakeholders in actively engaging with AI standards development and will directly shape the Hub’s future events, training resources, and research agenda.

Hybrid Format: - Livestream of the event via an interactive platform like Zoom to allow for Q&A. - Designated staffer to monitor chat/Q&A during presentation and panel discussion and to select questions from online participants for Q&A session. - Allow for an equal number of questions from onsite and online participants (depending on volume and time allotted). - Explicit emphasis on regional and stakeholder diversity in question/comment selection (to the extent possible based on on-the-day attendance). - The moderator will encourage panellists to address both onsite and online participants.