Editor

The AI International Accord Committee welcomes new member Eva Kaili

Eva Kaili, Chair, European Parliament’s Science and Technology Options Assessment Panel (STOA) and the Centre for Artificial Intelligence (C4AI), joins the Boston Global Forum AI International Accord Committee. She will speak at the “Fundamental Rights in AI and Digital Society: Towards an International Accord” Policy Lab co-organized by Boston Global Forum and Club de Madrid on September 7-9th, 2021.

Governor Michael Dukakis, Co-founder and Chair of the Boston Global Forum wrote: “We are aware of Eva Kaili’s great leadership within the European Parliament, especially in pushing for coordinated efforts in global AI standard-setting to promote trustworthy human-centered AI and advancing the establishment of the European Digital Single Market.”

Eva Kaili wrote: “It would be an honour to be part of the Boston Global Forum and cooperate in the Artificial Intelligence International Accord project”.

Eva Kaili is a Member of the European Parliament, part of the Hellenic S&D Delegation since 2014. She is Member of the Committees on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE), Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON), Budgets (BUDG), and the Special Committee on Artificial Intelligence in a Digital Age (AIDA). Eva is a member of the delegation to the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly (DACP), the delegation for relations with the Arab Peninsula (DARP), and the delegation for relations with the NATO Parliamentary Assembly (DNAT). In her capacity, she has been working intensively on promoting innovation as a driving force of the establishment of the European Digital Single Market. She has been the draftsperson of multiple pieces of legislation in the fields of blockchain technology, online platforms, big data, fintech, AI and cybersecurity, as well as the ITRE draftsperson on Juncker plan EFSI2 and more recently the InvestEU program.

The New Global AI Arms Race: How Nations Must Compete On Artificial Intelligence

Most industries already recognize that artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to create significant economic value – but government support and regulation can also bring the benefits of AI to citizens all over the world.

I recently interviewed Trung Ghi and Abhishek Srivastava, who co-authored an article called “The global AI arms race – How nations can avoid being left behind” about the global landscape for AI, and which countries are leading and lagging in the AI arms race. They also shared important insight for decision-makers and world leaders who want to gain a competitive edge in this critical race for AI growth.

The ultimate goal for every nation should be growing a resilient economy, not just dominating within a specific region or attracting large corporations. Trung and Abhishek state:

“Artificial intelligence promises to have the same disruptive effect on today’s global economy as electricity in the 19th century…In the late 19th century, as electricity was being popularized, it became apparent that it required a new framework, as it was different to virtually every other commodity. Whoever mastered the engineering and economics of electricity would indelibly change the course of history….progress with transformative technologies was neither linear nor predictable. The benefits of electrification did not accumulate for early adopters, but for those who had identified how electrification could transform their societies within its existing context.”

AI is on track to transform countries and industries in a similar way. The countries that will reap the most benefit from AI are the ones that adopt strategies that build on a foundation of their existing local and global economic ecosystems.

Trung and Abhishek predict that although we’re currently in the midst of a global AI arms race, within the next 10 years, more and more AI applications will be ubiquitous and accessible to everyone – just like electricity in the 19th century.

Some countries will move faster than others, but AI will soon be quite pervasive – and that will translate into big economic benefits for countries that are paying attention and making the right moves in terms of AI.

The article was originally published at Forbes.

To support for AI technology and development for a positive world society, Michael Dukakis Institute for Leadership and Innovation (MDI) and Boston Global Forum (BGF) has established Artificial Intelligence World Society Innovation Network (AIWS.net). In this effort, MDI and BGF invite participation and collaboration with governments, think tanks, universities, non-profits, firms, and other entities that share its commitment to the constructive and development of full-scale AI for world society. This initiative is to develop positive AI for helping people achieve well-being and happiness, relieve them of resource constraints and arbitrary/inflexible rules and processes, and solve important issues, such as SDGs.

Dialog between EU, US, Japanese, and Australian leaders on regulation on AI by the EU

The Boston Global Forum and the Michael Dukakis Institute wish to congratulates the EU Commission for the “Proposal for a REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL LAYING DOWN HARMONISED RULES ON ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ACT) AND AMENDING CERTAIN UNION LEGISLATIVE ACTS”

Boston Global Forum and Michael Dukakis Institute introduced  this concept:  In 2017 we publicly framed and  pushed this initiative at AI World Society. It was warmly welcomed as the Initiative for G7 Summit in Canada in 2018.  We have also put forth the Social Contract for the AI Age on September 9, 2020.  And, in April 28, 2021, we made public a draft of Framework for AI International Accord on.

The Proposal for a REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL LAYING DOWN HARMONISED RULES ON ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ACT) AND AMENDING CERTAIN UNION LEGISLATIVE ACTS has generated wide public discussion. Boston Global Forum and World Leadership Alliance-Club de Madrid will co-organize a dialogue among EU, US, Japanese, Australian leaders, multinational technology company executives, and distinguished scholars at our joint Policy Lab on 22-24 June, 2021. The focus will be on Fundamental Rights in AI & Digital Societies: Towards an International Accord.  Several former Presidents and Prime Ministers — members of Club de Madrid — will attend this event.

The discussion will be open and frank, anchored in the constructive spirit of leaders and decision makers who seek to contribute to a solid legal foundation for an AI World Society.  We believe this AI World Society will be practical and comprehensive, as well as human centric. It will chart a new path for humanity in The Age of Global Enlightenment.

Ready For A World Of (AI-Powered) Superhuman Precision? It’s Coming

Of the many great paintings by Michelangelo on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, one stands above all others as his most recognizable work. “The Creation of Adam” depicts God with hand outstretched to his creation, Adam. The painting raises a big question in the world of AI and Big Data—can humanity safely outstretch our collective hand to AI-controlled robots and machines, or are we likely to get our arms ripped off by imprecise electronics?

Today most people still think of AI as a mere computer program, solving problems in the digital realm. A formidable application of computer science, it can assist us with once inconceivable tasks, such as detecting cancer and analyzing data far too complex to wrap our minds around. Those AI applications, while still critical, no longer represent the state of the art. The cutting-edge work in AI now centers on how to safely introduce devices controlled by machine learning into our physical reality.

AI already has begun interfacing with the physical world in many ways, mostly in the industrial and farming sectors. For instance, GAIA (Geospatial Artificial Intelligence for Agriculture) is a system implemented in Australia combining imagery of vineyards and AI to inform farmers on the health of their plants on a row-by-row basis. Yes, it can even predict the quality of their fruit! And as I wrote for Forbes last year, high-tech manufacturers, such as Aerion Supersonic, are using “digital twin” tech to create an AI-driven mirror of their supersonic jets and manufacturing plant, tracking real-world performance down to the minutest detail.

The article was original posted on Forbes.

According to Artificial Intelligence World Society Innovation Network (AIWS.net), AI can be an important tool for industrial automation, relieve human resource constraints and arbitrary/inflexible rules and processes. In this effort, Michael Dukakis Institute for Leadership and Innovation (MDI) invites participation and collaboration with think tanks, universities, non-profits, firms, and other entities that share its commitment to the constructive and development of full-scale AI for world society.

Building the AI International Accord: NATO on AI warfare — AI treaty consultation — Unions call for more AI protections

The China question: Beijing supports banning the use of these weapons, but not their development or production. The U.S. and NATO have argued that they need to keep autonomous lethal weapons in their arsenals as deterrence and defense against “malign” actors — all very reminiscent of the Cold War and nuclear politics.

Van Weel, the assistant secretary-general, said: “China has a seamless flow of these new technologies from the private sector into the defense realm. I’m … not sure that they’re having the same debates on principles of responsible use or they’re definitely not applying our democratic values to these technologies.”

Coyle doesn’t trust Beijing either, calling it an “insincere partner in many of their multilateral agreements.”

The article was original published at Politico EU.

The Boston Global Forum and World Leadership Alliance-Club de Madrid are collaborating in building the Framework for AI International Accord (AIIA) and AIIA Policy Lab, which will be organized on June 22-24, 2021.

Top 10 Applications Of Artificial Intelligence In Manufacturing

What is the objective of every asset-based manufacturing company?

All factors remaining constant, all manufacturers who want to say in business are always looking for better ways to reduce production costs and increase production efficiency in order to enjoy larger profit margins… of course at the safety of workers.

But for this dream to become a reality, company machinery, and equipment, among other key components like manpower, need to function flawlessly and at their optimum.

However, this is not always the case.

One of the main challenges manufacturers face is unplanned downtime caused by machinery. It is even estimated that this kind of downtime costs manufacturers $USD 50 billion annually.

In this article, we are going to look at the top 10 uses and applications of AI in manufacturing that have been used to curb a number of challenges that manufacturing companies face, including unplanned downtime, which 42 percent of the time is the result of asset failure.

If you didn’t know it yet, AI applications have taken the manufacturing sector hostage and are now transforming every aspect of it… including replacing humans with robots.

But this wave is not only sweeping the manufacturer, check out this other article where I outlined the other top trending industries where AI is heavily in use today.

This article was originally posted here.

In support of positive AI development for a world society with smart manufacturing, the Michael Dukakis Institute for Leadership and Innovation (MDI) and Boston Global Forum (BGF) established the Artificial Intelligence World Society (AIWS.net) in 2018. According to AIWS.net, AI can be an important tool for helping people achieve well-being and happiness, relieve them of resource constraints and arbitrary/inflexible rules and processes. In this effort, Michael Dukakis Institute for Leadership and Innovation (MDI) invites participation and collaboration with think tanks, universities, non-profits, firms, and other entities that share its commitment to the constructive and development of full-scale AI for world society.

UN Centennial Roundtable “Digital Tax and Trade Consortium”

The plethora of government tax, fiscal, and trade digital transformation initiatives are each occurring within a single country domain. A preliminary analysis of this growing digital transformation demand reveals multi-country interest in key tax, fiscal, and trade technology initiatives, including digital identification, multi-party data sharing, e-invoicing, distributed systems (e.g., blockchain) applied to global trade, and artificial intelligence / data systems to improve governmental decision-making. Absent intervention, these initiatives will continue as single-country initiatives, duplicative technology solutions will be developed, and intergovernmental technology interoperability will be sub-optimized.

Our idea is for The Prosperity Collaborative to lead an effort to convert certain aspects of this global digital demand to DPGs immediately available to multiple jurisdictions, playing a key leadership role in advancing DPGs for tax, fiscal, and trade systems within governments, as a practical solution for the Concept of AI-Government, conceived by Boston Global Forum and Michael Dukakis Institute. Our Collaborative builds and leads a multi-stakeholder consortium focused on developing and advancing DPGs in this important space. We could call this new organization the Digital Tax and Trade Consortium (DTTC). This new multi-stakeholder DTTC would be comprised of multilaterals, anchored by The World Bank, and ideally including the UN, OECD, ADB, etc.; fintech providers, World Economic Forum, technologists (principally, Microsoft), philanthropists, and leading policymakers.

 

Chair/Moderator: Mr. Ramu Damodaran, Chief Academic Impact of the United Nations. Keynote speaker: Professor Alex Sandy Pentland, MIT

Panelists:

Dr. Tomicah Tillemann, Executive Director of the Digital Impact and Governance Initiative (DIGI) at New America
Mr. Jeff Saviano, EY Global Tax Innovation Leader
Mr. Anders Hjorth Agerskov, Lead Public Sector Specialist at the World Bank Group

 

Link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cc06e_Eu41c

Paul Nemitz speech at the AI International Accord Roundtable: “The Law of the Sea as a model for the AI International Accords (AIIA)”

Is it right, and this will be my last and third remark, to take the multilateral agreement on the Law of the Sea, which is a United Nations Agreement, as a model for our work on AI? The multilateral agreement on the Law of the Sea is the biggest binding convention of the United Nations. And I would say, having in mind the ambition to have as many countries on board as possible as a precondition for a global AI accord working, I think that makes the Law of the Sea a great model.

Second, the Law of the Sea at the time was extremely innovative in dealing with a space which was largely unexplored, out there beyond the sight of the coast, 70% of the space of the world and so deep at certain places that no men had ever seen the bottom of what was being regulated in binding international law. This was exactly the reason that states got together and agreed on, if you look at them today, amazing principles of a binding nature because everyone understood that this new frontier, the ocean being at the beginning of exploitation, deep sea mining and other forms of economic and scientific activity, needs common rules to avoid conflicts in the future.

And the United Nations and states went very far on this. They even set up a court and a dispute settlement system which today works fairly well.

So, I think we should have our ambitions high, go beyond just repeating non-binding types of principles which we already find in the OECD code and in many ethic codes, focus on the specific nature of AI as a technology which provides us with the opportunity to set out principles on which agreement is possible, and we should aim for binding rules because we are dealing with power relations here and a matter of greatest importance both for states as well as natural persons.

 

Workforce 4.0: Americans Tackle Artificial Intelligence

According to a recent World Economic Forum report, 50% of all employees will need reskilling by 2025. In the U.S. government alone, 18.2% of the federal government retired in 2020. Another 34% will be eligible for retirement by the fiscal year 2023. Our workforce demands are urgent.

Emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are increasingly adopted even without our knowledge. Their potential seems limitless. Jobs in AI range from data scientists and subject matter experts to data engineers and data analysts to economists, technical writers and ethicists. With this new frontier and the fact that these tools touch every aspect of our lives, leaders across the workforce spectrum see this as an all-hands moment.

In anticipation of this major workforce pivot, federal government leaders collaborated with Harvard, Johns Hopkins, the Naval Postgraduate School, NavalX and hundreds of industry and government stewards. Through the American Council for Technology and Industry Advisory Council (ATC-IAC), the AI Working Group met for the last two years to develop the following frameworks to help U.S. government agencies adopt, implement and educate AI technologies as well as evaluate ethical outcomes of AI.

At every stage, it is necessary to question everything relating to the consumption of AI. These four guides serve as valuable tools to help lead government and industry on bias, fairness, transparency, responsibility and interpretability of AI.

The article was originally published at Forbes.

To support for AI technology and development for social impact, Michael Dukakis Institute for Leadership and Innovation (MDI) and Boston Global Forum (BGF) has established Artificial Intelligence World Society Innovation Network (AIWS.net). In this effort, MDI and BGF invite participation and collaboration with governments, think tanks, universities, non-profits, firms, and other entities that share its commitment to the constructive and development of full-scale AI for world society. This initiative is to develop positive AI for helping people achieve well-being and happiness, relieve them of resource constraints and arbitrary/inflexible rules and processes, and solve important issues, such as SDGs.