Editor

As technology progresses, business leaders understand the need to adopt enterprise solutions leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI). However, there’s understandable hesitancy due to implications around the ethics of this technology — is AI inherently biased, racist, or sexist? And what impact could this have on my business?

Organizational emphasis on AI ethics has two prongs. The first is related to AI governance which deals with what is permissible in the field of AI, from development to adoption, to usage.

The second touches on AI ethics research aiming to understand the inherent characteristics of AI models as a result of certain development practices and their potential risks. We believe the learnings from this field will continue to become more nuanced. For instance, current research is largely focused on foundation models, and in the next few years, it will turn to smaller downstream tasks that can either mitigate or propagate the downsides of these models.

Universal adoption of AI in all aspects of life will require us to think about its power, its purpose, and its impact. This is done by focusing on AI ethics and demanding that AI be used in an ethical manner. Of course, the first step to achieving this is to find agreement on what it means to use and develop AI ethically.

The original article was posted here.

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.

 

On July 18, the U.K. government published a policy paper titled “Establishing a pro-innovation approach to regulating AI” (the “Paper”). Instead of giving responsibility for AI governance to a central national regulatory body, as the EU is planning to do through its draft AI Act, the government’s proposals will allow different regulators to take a tailored approach to the use of AI in a range of settings to ensure that the U.K.’s AI regulations can keep pace with change and don’t stand in the way of innovation.

On the same date, the U.K. Government published its AI Action Plan, summarizing the actions taken and planned to be taken to deliver the U.K.’s National AI Strategy (the “AI Strategy”).

A ‘Pro-Innovation Framework’

The Paper forms part of a response to one of the government’s medium term key actions under the AI Strategy, which envisaged an AI regulation White Paper being published within six months of the strategy’s publication. That March deadline has now passed and this Paper is designed as a stepping stone to the forthcoming White Paper and provides interesting details on scope, the government’s regulatory approach, key principles and the next steps.

The original article was published by SHRM.

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.

 

China and the European Union have both moved to create comprehensive artificial intelligence policy. U.S. policymakers should move forward the AI Bill of Rights to keep pace.

More than sixty years after a research group at Dartmouth University launched work on a new field called “Artificial Intelligence,” the United States still lacks a national strategy on artificial intelligence (AI) policy. The growing urgency of this endeavor is made clear by the rapid progress of both U.S. allies and adversaries.

The European Union is moving forward with two initiatives of far-reaching consequence. The EU Artificial Intelligence Act will establish a comprehensive, risk-based approach for the regulation of AI when it is adopted in 2023. Many anticipate that the EU AI Act will extend the “Brussels Effect” across the AI sector as the earlier European data privacy law, the General Data Privacy Regulation, did for much of the tech industry.

The Council of Europe is developing the first international AI convention aiming to protect fundamental rights, democratic institutions, and the rule of law. Like the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime (COE) and the Privacy Convention, the AI Convention will be open for ratification by member and non-member states. The COE remains influential, as Canada, Japan, the United States, and several South American countries have signed on.

China is also moving forward with an aggressive regulatory strategy to complement its goal to be the “world leader in AI by 2030.” China recently matched the GDPR with the Personal Information Protection Law and a new regulation on recommendation algorithms with similar provisions to the EU’s Digital Services Act. The Chinese regulatory model will likely influence countries in Africa and Asia, part of the Belt and Road Initiative, and give rise to a possible “Beijing Effect.”

The United States has done an admirable job maintaining a coherent policy in the Executive Branch over the Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations, highlighting key values and promoting an aggressive research agenda. In the 2019 Executive Order on Maintaining American Leadership in AI, the United States said it would “foster public trust and confidence in AI technologies and protect civil liberties, privacy, and American values in their application.” Promoting the Use of AI in the Federal Government established the principles for the “development and use of AI consistent with American values and are beneficial to the public.”

The original article was published by the Council on Foreign Relations.

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.

Talk is cheap regarding companies talking up their credentials in Environment Social and Governance (ESG). But artificial intelligence and natural language processing can help identify those who are more serious about it than others.

At U.S.-based fund manager Acadian Asset Management, the firm has developed a tool that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to rank corporates by the seriousness of their intent.

In the investment world, many fund managers base their decisions on which companies to invest in on how much they disclose about their activities. But this is only part of the story, says Acadian’s director of responsible investing, Andy Moniz.

To get the real picture requires the skills and applications of an investigative journalist. This is impossible to do at scale when assessing a universe of 40,000 investable securities based on their ESG actions and not just their words.

The original article was posted here.

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 internet has evolved beyond a communications medium. It’s an essential platform for the free flow of information, impacting individuals, society and the entire world. To keep today’s increasingly connected world free and secure, and to ensure that everyone may operate with privacy, the technology community, governments and corporate boardrooms need to invest in digital trust.

In recognition of the internet’s transformative role, the U.S. government, together with 60 global partners, issued the Declaration for the Future of the Internet. Intended to address today’s opportunities and challenges worldwide, the declaration is dedicated to “a positive vision for the Internet.” It pledges to support an internet that’s “open, free, global, interoperable, reliable, and secure.”

The declaration also affirms principles such as protecting people’s foundational rights and freedoms, promoting the unfettered flow of information and enabling affordable connectivity for everyone. The most important principles in the declaration, however, are a commitment to “promote trust in the global digital ecosystem, including through protection of privacy” and “protect and strengthen the multistakeholder approach to governance that keeps the Internet running for the benefit of all.”

Digital trust is the foundation of these interactions, helping us build, participate in and develop this increasingly connected world. It allows people to feel confident that their online transactions, interactions, business processes and other activities remain safe and secure.

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.

In 2016, as the Ethics and Governance of AI Initiative (the Initiative) was being conceptualized, numerous events occurred that would impact research, policy, and public discourse on the ethics and governance of AI. Examples include: the founding of the Partnership on AI (PAI); the ProPublica investigation that uncovered significant racial bias in AI used by law enforcement; and Brexit and the US presidential election, two political events which involved the spreading of misinformation on social media platforms. The funders recalled that the field of AI ethics was nascent when the Initiative was created: “There was definitely a sense in 2016 that there was so much going on […] it was a very rapidly moving field that hadn’t taken shape at all.

By 2017, $26 million had been raised for the Initiative that sought “to ensure that technologies of automation and machine learning are researched, developed, and deployed in a way which vindicates social values of fairness, human autonomy, and justice.” Philanthropic support was provided by Luminate (founded by The Omidyar Group), Reid Hoffman, Knight Foundation, and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. The Miami Foundation provided fiscal management. The Initiative was structured as a joint project of the MIT Media Lab and the Harvard Berkman-Klein Center for Internet and Society (BKC).

The original article was posted at the Knight Foundation.

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.

Governments are increasingly using artificial intelligence (AI) systems to support policymaking, deliver public services, and manage internal people and processes. AI systems in public-facing services range from predictive machine-learning systems used in fraud and benefit determinations to chatbots used to communicate with the public about their rights and obligations across a range of settings.

The integration of AI into agency decision-making processes that affect the public’s rights poses unique challenges for agencies.

System design decisions about training data, model design, thresholds, and interface design can set policy—thereby affecting the public’s rights. Yet today many agencies acquire AI systems through a procurement process that lacks opportunities for public input on system design choices that embed policy, limits agencies’ access to information necessary for meaningful assessment, and lacks validation and other processes for rooting out biases that may unfairly, and at times illegally, affect the public.

AI systems can be opaque, making it difficult to fully understand the logic and processes underlying an output, therefore making it difficult to meet obligations that attach to individual decisions. Furthermore, automation bias and the interfaces and policies that shape agency use of AI tools can turn systems intended as decision support into decision displacement.

Some governments have begun to grapple with the use of AI systems in public service delivery, providing guidance to agencies about how to approach the embedded policy choices within AI.

The original article was posted at The Regulatory Review.

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.

Greek citizens can now create, store and present digital versions of their national identity card and driving licence using a digital identity wallet on their smartphone.

The Greek government has begun rolling out the Gov.gr Wallet for both Android and Apple devices, enabling citizens to generate digital documents that can be used in Greece in the same way as their physical ID card or driving licence and incorporate a QR code and unique document code that allow a document’s authenticity to be verified by officials.

“After entering the application environment, the citizen can with a few clicks create and save the digital copy of his ID and/or driving licence,” the Greek Ministry of Digital Governance says.

https://www.nfcw.com/2022/07/29/378338/greece-rolls-out-digital-id-cards-and-driving-licences/

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.

Artificial intelligence plays an important role in the digitalization of many banks, but it could turn into a regulatory minefield in the coming years.

Preparations are underway in the European Union for regulations on the use of artificial intelligence (AI). While the process is still in limbo, the thrust of the planned rules provides clues as to what companies need to prepare for.

Swiss AI and the analytics consultancy «Unit8» published a white paper outlining the areas of concern arising from such regulation. Companies would do well to prepare for the new rules and already implement them as a preventive measure, it recommends, even though Switzerland is not part of the EU.

https://www.finews.com/news/english-news/52527-eu-ai-regulation-becomes-a-threat-to-financial-industry

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.