Editor

Chief technology officers should follow the do no harm mantra of the Hippocratic Oath when incorporating artificial intelligence software into company platforms.

While an overarching goal of introducing AI is to increase efficiencies or remove biases, there are often unexpected consequences when good ideas unintentionally cause harm.

For example, use of facial recognition technology to identify criminal suspects can sometimes result in the arrest (or worse) of an innocent person. Or the development of a weaponized drone for the military that falls into the wrong hands can stray far from the developer’s original intention.

Most of corporate America likely won’t be using facial recognition software or weaponized drones. However, many companies rolled out monitoring software during the pandemic to better keep track of where and how their employees were working remotely.

For some, AI was a great resource for building safety models that helped bring the workforce back to the office in a post-pandemic world. But for others, monitoring productivity in a remote workforce seemed like an invasion of privacy rather than ethical use of AI tools.

The original article was published at Bloomberg Law.

The Boston Global Forum (BGF), in collaboration with the United Nations Centennial Initiative, released a major work entitled Remaking the World – Toward an Age of Global Enlightenment. More than twenty distinguished leaders, scholars, analysts, and thinkers put forth unprecedented approaches to the challenges before us. These include President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, Governor Michael Dukakis, Father of Internet Vint Cerf, Former Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, Harvard University Professors Joseph Nye and Thomas Patterson, MIT Professors Nazli Choucri and Alex ‘Sandy’ Pentland. The BGF introduced core concepts shaping pathbreaking international initiatives, notably, the Social Contract for the AI Age, an AI International Accord, the Global Alliance for Digital Governance, the AI World Society (AIWS) Ecosystem, and AIWS City.

A recent article by McKinsey & Co. perhaps best sums up the current zeitgeist on corporate environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives: “Although valid questions have been raised about ESG, the need for companies to understand and address their externalities is likely to become essential to maintaining their social license.” Artificial intelligence (AI) technology is a juggernaut of an externality, increasingly influencing how social license is granted – or not. Fortunately, amidst widespread public mistrust of artificial intelligence, using blockchain technology for AI governance can profoundly help companies wanting to build public trust in their responsible use of this.

Simply put, using blockchain technology to immutably record all the decisions made about an AI or machine learning (ML) model is a major step toward transparency, a critical precursor to trust. This use of blockchain allows auditability, as well, to further help establish trust. These tenets are at the heart of an AI governance model built around a corporate AI and model development standard, and enforced by blockchain technology.

Developing an AI decisioning model is a complex process that comprises myriad incremental decisions. These include the model’s variables, model design, algorithms, training and test data utilized, selection of features, the model’s raw latent features, ethics testing and stability testing. It also includes the scientists who built different portions of the variable sets, participated in model creation, and performed model testing. As enabled by blockchain technology, the sum and total record of these decisions provides the visibility required to effectively govern models internally according to corporate-defined standards, ascribe accountability and satisfy impending regulatory requirements.

The original article was published at EnterpriseAI.

The Boston Global Forum (BGF), in collaboration with the United Nations Centennial Initiative, released a major work entitled Remaking the World – Toward an Age of Global Enlightenment.   More than twenty distinguished leaders, scholars, analysts, and thinkers put forth unprecedented approaches to the challenges before us. These include President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, Governor Michael Dukakis, Father of Internet Vint Cerf, Former Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, Harvard University Professors Joseph Nye and Thomas Patterson, MIT Professors Nazli Choucri and Alex ‘Sandy’ Pentland. The BGF introduced core concepts shaping pathbreaking international initiatives, notably, the Social Contract for the AI Age, an AI International Accord, the Global Alliance for Digital Governance, the AI World Society (AIWS) Ecosystem, and AIWS City.

Artificial Intelligence is one of the most representative disruptive technologies that enable the development of society at the global level. AI has advantages for humankind, while also bringing with it safety and security challenges. The Position Paper of the People’s Republic of China on Strengthening Ethical Governance of Artificial Intelligence (AI) released on Nov 16 highlights China’s vision, practices and views for ethical governance of the technology from the perspective of global cooperation and coordination. It calls for global consensus with mutual respect, and actions for the good of humanity: https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202211/23/WS637d5175a31049175432b4d6.html

It is true that China has a reputation for not having freedom of the internet and freedom of education. The Chinese government has a long history of censorship and control of the internet, and it has imposed strict controls on the content that is available online. This has led to widespread complaints about the lack of freedom on the internet in China, and many people have criticized the government for stifling free speech and limiting access to information.

Similarly, the Chinese government has also been criticized for its lack of freedom in education. The government controls the content of education in China, and it has been accused of promoting a narrow and biased view of history and politics. This has led to concerns about the quality of education in China, and many people have called for greater freedom and diversity in the education system.

Overall, the lack of freedom of the internet and freedom of education in China is a cause for concern, and it has led to widespread criticism of the Chinese government’s policies in these areas and AI, Data, Digital.

It is a concern that the government of China are using AI and data to create a totalitarian state. The use of these technologies for surveillance and control purposes could allow the government to monitor and control the actions and behaviors of its citizens in unprecedented ways. This could lead to a situation in which individual rights and freedoms are severely curtailed, and the government has near-total control over society. This would be a disturbing development, and it is important for individuals and organizations to be aware of the potential risks and to take steps to protect against abuses of these technologies.

This means that the Chinese government do not meet the standards of the Social Contract for the AI Age, so one should not trust the CCP’s vision on AI ethics and governance.

This year the EU unveiled the AI Liability Directive, a bill that will make it easier to sue companies for harm caused, part of a wider push to prevent companies from developing and deploying harmful AI. The bill adds an extra layer onto the proposed AI Act, which will require extra checks for “high-risk” uses of AI, such as in the use of policing, recruitment, or healthcare. Unveiled earlier this month, the bill is likely to become law within the next few years.

While some worry the AI Liability Directive will curb innovation, the purpose is to hold AI companies accountable, and require them to explain how their AI systems are built and trained. Tech companies that fail to comply will risk Europe-wide class actions.

While the US has been slower to adopt protective policies, the White House also released the blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights earlier this month which outlines how consumers should be protected from harmful AI:

• Artificial intelligence should be safe and effective
• Algorithms should not discriminate
• Data privacy must be protected
• Consumers should be aware when AI is being used
• Consumers should be able to opt-out of using it, and speak to a human instead

This article was originally posted at The Next Web.

The Boston Global Forum (BGF), in collaboration with the United Nations Centennial Initiative, released a major work entitled Remaking the World – Toward an Age of Global Enlightenment.   More than twenty distinguished leaders, scholars, analysts, and thinkers put forth unprecedented approaches to the challenges before us. These include President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, Governor Michael Dukakis, Father of Internet Vint Cerf, Former Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, Harvard University Professors Joseph Nye and Thomas Patterson, MIT Professors Nazli Choucri and Alex ‘Sandy’ Pentland, and Vice President of European Parliament Eva Kaili.  The BGF introduced core concepts shaping pathbreaking international initiatives, notably, the Social Contract for the AI Age, an AI International Accord, the Global Alliance for Digital Governance, the AI World Society (AIWS) Ecosystem, and AIWS City.

Thailand was an early adopter of the internet for government services, creating an e-government system as early as 1997. But political turmoil in 2006 caused the kingdom to fall behind. When the United Nations ranked countries by e-government in 2012, Thailand was a dismal 92nd out of 193.

Things improved with the establishment of a Digital Government Development Agency in 2018. The Covid pandemic’s necessity for social distancing and lockdown accelerated this transformation. Government departments that invested in digital teams, platforms, and ways of working did better than those that did not. The overall results were encouraging. In the 2022 rankings, Thailand is a respectable 55th, about the same as Malaysia and slightly behind China.

Thailand will successfully manage the transition to digital governance if it takes the time now to make sure it is moving in the right direction. Moving from paper applications to electronic forms was easy. Ensuring that digital governance continues to serve the interests of the people will be a greater challenge.

The original article was posted at Bangkok Post.

The Boston Global Forum (BGF), in collaboration with the United Nations Centennial Initiative, released a major work entitled Remaking the World – Toward an Age of Global Enlightenment.   More than twenty distinguished leaders, scholars, analysts, and thinkers put forth unprecedented approaches to the challenges before us. These include President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, Governor Michael Dukakis, Father of Internet Vint Cerf, Former Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, Harvard University Professors Joseph Nye and Thomas Patterson, MIT Professors Nazli Choucri and Alex ‘Sandy’ Pentland, and Vice President of European Parliament Eva Kaili.  The BGF introduced core concepts shaping pathbreaking international initiatives, notably, the Social Contract for the AI Age, an AI International Accord, the Global Alliance for Digital Governance, the AI World Society (AIWS) Ecosystem, and AIWS City.

A review of the United Nations recently released 2022 E-Government Survey shows progress, surprises, and opportunity for governments across the globe in their shift to the digitization of services. Covid-19 has accelerated the need for governments to become more and more digitally accessible for their citizens as an increasing percentage of people have become more digitally savvy. Meeting your customers (in this case, your citizens) where they are, instead of forcing them to do things your way, is always the wise way to do business. But, moving the enormous bureaucratic icebergs that are governments is complicated, messy, and sometimes near impossible.

As governments worldwide are looking to streamline the delivery of services through mobile, cloud, automation, and digitalization processes, what will the future of person-to-government interaction look like? Will our relationships with our governmental entities become “better”? Or, will the archaic technologies that governments have invested in previously become a hindrance to actual progress?

By embracing the need for digital governance, these countries are poised to continue to lead the world well into the 21st century and beyond. By better serving their citizens, they will have a healthier, more informed, and more engaged citizenry, leading to a stronger society within their borders.

The original article was published at Forbes.

The Boston Global Forum (BGF), in collaboration with the United Nations Centennial Initiative, released a major work entitled Remaking the World – Toward an Age of Global Enlightenment.   More than twenty distinguished leaders, scholars, analysts, and thinkers put forth unprecedented approaches to the challenges before us. These include President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, Governor Michael Dukakis, Father of Internet Vint Cerf, Former Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, Harvard University Professors Joseph Nye and Thomas Patterson, MIT Professors Nazli Choucri and Alex ‘Sandy’ Pentland, and Vice President of European Parliament Eva Kaili.  The BGF introduced core concepts shaping pathbreaking international initiatives, notably, the Social Contract for the AI Age, an AI International Accord, the Global Alliance for Digital Governance, the AI World Society (AIWS) Ecosystem, and AIWS City.

The United States of America White House: The Office of Science & Technology Policy recently released its Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights, and provided recommendations that developers, businesses, users, and lawmakers can follow to reduce AI’s potential harms to humans, and to our society at large.

AI is being used in so many positive ways, however, until we advance our legal systems, audit systems, procurement systems and our educational systems – we will continue to put at risk our evolution in our more intelligent world.

The Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights recognizes that law enforcement activities require a balancing of equities, for example, between the protection of sensitive law enforcement information and the principle of notice; as such, notice may not be appropriate, or may need to be adjusted to protect sources, methods, and other law enforcement equities.

Five AI principles are identified to guide the design, use, and deployment of automated systems to protect the American public in the age of artificial intelligence. The Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights is a guide for a society that protects all people from these threats—and uses technologies in ways that reinforce our highest values. The Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights includes a Foreword, the five principles, notes on Applying the Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights, and From Principles to Practice that gives concrete steps that can be taken by many kinds of organizations—from governments at all levels to companies of all sizes—to uphold these values.

The original article was posted at Forbes.

The Boston Global Forum (BGF), in collaboration with the United Nations Centennial Initiative, released a major work entitled Remaking the World – Toward an Age of Global Enlightenment.   More than twenty distinguished leaders, scholars, analysts, and thinkers put forth unprecedented approaches to the challenges before us. These include President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, Governor Michael Dukakis, Father of Internet Vint Cerf, Former Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, Harvard University Professors Joseph Nye and Thomas Patterson, MIT Professors Nazli Choucri and Alex ‘Sandy’ Pentland, and Vice President of European Parliament Eva Kaili.  The BGF introduced core concepts shaping pathbreaking international initiatives, notably, the Social Contract for the AI Age, an AI International Accord, the Global Alliance for Digital Governance, the AI World Society (AIWS) Ecosystem, and AIWS City.