The transformation of society, government and industry being driven by AI systems requires coordinated and forward-looking public policy frameworks that are informed by government, industry, policy, technical experts and the public, to shape human-centric development and deployment of AI. This Open Forum will inform participants about the OECD Recommendation on Artificial Intelligence and seek feedback on priority areas for AI public policy and ideas for multi-stakeholder co-operation.
The OECD’s Committee on Digital Economy Policy agreed to form an AI expert group (AIGO) in May 2018, which completed its recommendations to the OECD in Dubai in February 2019. The OECD’s Committee on Digital Economy Policy then built on the recommendations to develop the first intergovernmental Recommendation for AI in March 2019, that is expected to be adopted at the annual OECD Ministerial Council Meeting in May 2019.
The Recommendation promotes human-centric AI that fosters innovation and trust. Complementing existing OECD standards in areas such as privacy, digital security risk management, and responsible business conduct, the Recommendation focuses on the features specific to AI and sets a standard that is implementable and flexible, so as to stand the test of time in a rapidly evolving field.
The Recommendation identifies five complementary value-based principles for the responsible stewardship of trustworthy AI that are relevant to all stakeholders: inclusive growth, sustainable development and well-being; human-centred values and fairness; transparency and explainability; robustness, security and safety; and accountability. It further calls on AI actors to promote and implement these principles according to their roles.
In addition, the Recommendation provides five recommendations to policy makers pertaining to national policies and international co-operation for trustworthy AI, namely: investing in AI research and development; fostering a digital ecosystem for AI; shaping an enabling policy environment for AI; building human capacity and preparing for labour market transformation; and international co-operation for trustworthy AI.
The OECD has started to move from principles to implementation with the second leg of our work on AI: the AI Policy Observatory to be launched in 2019. Through the Observatory, the OECD is working with a wide spectrum of partners from governments, industry, policy and technical experts and academia. The Observatory is a multidisciplinary, evidence-based and multi-stakeholder centre for policy-relevant evidence collection, debate and guidance for governments, while providing external partners with a single window onto policy-relevant activities and research on AI from across the OECD (more information on: http://oe.cd/ai)
Content of the Session
The first part of the session will focus on presenting and discussing the content of the OECD Recommendation on Artificial Intelligence and its role in helping to shape an international AI policy framework. Following an introduction to the Recommendation, Governments from several countries will provide their perspectives on its content.
In the second part of the panel, partner IGOs and technical, business and civil society representatives will be invited to discuss priorities to help policy makers move from principles to practice and priorities for the AI Policy Observatory. Interventions will build on the advanced initiatives underway including the IEEE’s Initiative on the Ethical Design of Autonomous and Intelligent Systems, the Partnership on AI to Benefit People and Society, the EC and UNESCO’s work on AI.
Interventions
1) The international AI policy framework and the role of the OECD principles for artificial intelligence:
• Ms. Audrey Plonk, Head of Digital Economy Policy Division, OECD, will welcome speakers and participants to the OECD Open Forum on AI along with Mr. Yoichi Iida, incoming CDEP Chair, Japanese Ministry of Internal affairs and Communications (MIC-Japan), who will moderate the session.
• Ms. Karine Perset, Administrator – AI Policy, Digital Economy Policy Division, OECD, will present the process to develop the AI principles and next steps for the OECD to help implement the Principles (5 minutes).
• Ms. Makiko Yamada, Vice Minister, MIC-Japan, will presenta the origin of the AI Principles at the G7 in Takamatsu and the significance of the principles including in the G20 process (5 minutes).
2) Priorities for international and multi-stakeholder cooperation in moving from principles to practice, including through the AI Policy Observatory
• Mr. Rob Strayer, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Cyber and International Communications and Information Policy, will provide the US Government perspective on the principles and the importance of helping countries to implement the principles, in particular through the OECD AI Policy Observatory (6-7 minutes).
• Ms. Carolyn N’Guyen, Director of Technology Policy, Microsoft, will provide business perspective on priorities to implement the AI Principles (3-4 minutes).
• Mr. Mina Hanna, Co-Chair of the "Policy Committee of the IEEE Standards Association's Global Initiative on Ethics of Autonomous and Intelligent Systems", will provide technologists' perspective on priorities to implement the AI Principles (3-4 minutes).
• Ms. Valeria Milanes, Executive Director of ADC (Association for Civil Rights) and CSISAC Steering Committee member, will introduce a civil society perspective on priorities for AI policy and implementing th OECD Principles (3-4 minutes).
• Ms. Sasha Rubel, Programme Specialist, Knowledge Societies Division, Communication and Information Sector, UNESCO, will introduce UNESCO's perspective on priorities for AI policy and the linkages between UNESCO's work and the OECD's (3-4 minutes).
• Ms. Katarzyna Gorgol, Adviser, Digital Affairs and Telecommunication, Delegation of the European Union to the United Nations, will introduce the European Commission's perspective on priorities for AI policy and implementing the OECD Principles and EC's ethical guidelines (3-4 minutes).
3) Discussants:
• Mr. Charles Chew, IMDA (Singapore) will intervene on key AI governance developments in Singapore, Singapore’s participation in AIGO and in G20 (2 minutes).
• Ms. Xiao Zhang, from CNNIC/CAC (China) will intervene on China’s priorities for AI development and on the G20 AI Principles (2 minutes).
4) Discussion: The Chair will moderate a short discussion and if possible take 1 or 2 questions from the floor (20 minutes).
Diversity: This open forum is designed to provide diverse perspectives. It is balanced first in terms of stakeholder groups, with intergovernmental organisation representation through the OECD, UNESCO and the European Commission; private sector representation through Microsoft; technical community representation through the IEEE, and civil society representation through CSISAC. In terms of gender, the workshop will be balanced with the participation of at least three women. Participation of speakers from Asia, North America, Europe will ensure that the panel is geographically diverse.