Transatlantic Approaches on Digital Governance:   A New Social Contract in Artificial Intelligence

1.     Rationale

Digital technologies are rapidly transforming society. Critical infrastructures of all kinds, from telecommunications to medical devices and financial services, increasingly rely on digital and artificial intelligence systems developed and operated by a small number of large technological companies. The technical complexity of digital technologies, coupled with the concentration of digital markets in the hands of a relatively small number of corporate giants, gives these an unprecedented leverage over public policy‐making processes aimed at governing the digital environment, both nationally and internationally.

While the benefits of inclusive consultations in public policy‐making have long been acknowledged and promoted by democracy advocates the world over, the UN Secretary‐ General’s High‐level Panel on Digital Cooperation, in its June 2019 report, recommends to push inclusion one step further by adopting a multistakeholder approach to digital policy making. International digital cooperation, it asserts, cannot be led exclusively by governments through multilateral efforts; it also requires cooperation structures that involve other stakeholders such as technological companies, civil society, academics and technology specialists to address the social, ethical, legal and economic impact of digital technologies in order to maximize their benefits and minimize their harm.

The rapid deployment and decentralization of new technologies and artificial intelligence beyond the control of States, as well as the digital interdependence in this globalized world, presents itself as a current global challenge. It involves a division of responsibility that leads to a sweeping set of interrelated challenges for governments and the multilateral system and requires the articulation of collective responses at all levels.

The practice of multistakeholderism is not new. Multistakeholder initiatives have been burgeoning for over two decades, particularly in areas related to standard setting. In the digital sphere, examples of long‐standing multi‐stakeholder initiatives include the Internet Engineering Taskforce (IETF), which has been setting technical standards related to internet protocols since 1986, and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which has been managing the global domain name system since 1998. More recently, various national and international public bodies have also permanent multistakeholder structures to advise them on digital policy, such as the UN Secretary‐General’s Multistakeholder Advisory Group tagged to the Internet Governance Forum.

Multistakeholderism, however, poses fundamental questions related to the core principles of democracy. By devolving to private actors important functions within the public policy‐making process, multistakeholderism casts a shadow of doubt over the ability to deliver policy that meets the best public interest. While democratic governments are formed through representative systems and held in check by public accountability mechanisms, most participants in multistakeholder initiatives are motivated by private interests and free from any obligation of accountability to the broader community. The composition of multistakeholder initiatives – generally limited to a small sub‐set of all the physical and legal persons who may have stakes in an issue – also gravely limits their ability to represent the whole spectrum of views that may exist among the public, resulting in less inclusivity than may have been achieved through alternative approaches to inclusive policy‐making.

Yet, for digital governance, the unavoidability of engaging technological companies in policy‐ making remains. Their economic power, technical know‐how and ability to innovate not only gives them leverage over public authorities, but also puts them in a privileged position to develop solutions that use more digital technology to address the policy challenges posed by digital technology. Democratic governments and multilateral organizations based on member Member States’ decisions and policy‐making, therefore, are confronted with the challenge of redesigning public policy‐making processes for digital governance in such a way as to constructively engage technologies companies while protecting the democratic mandate of public policy‐makers.

The WLA – CdM’s 2019 ‘Call to Action’ to promote a democratic approach to Digital Transformation and the Future of Democracy, developed during WLA – CdM’s 2019 Annual Policy Dialogue and supported by its Members, invites world leaders to take proactive action to frame the development of digital technologies in an inclusive, fair and rights‐based legal, political and social framework.

What role is there for technological companies in democratic policy‐making? Is multistakeholderism, despite its democratic limitations, the lesser of all evils in digital governance? Or are alternative approaches to inclusive policy‐making more likely to deliver effective policy that meets the best public interest? How to balance the different sources of power to build a new social contract on AI and digital governance?

And on global level, is the proliferation of multistakeholder initiatives a sign of weakening of the multilateral system, or can it rather strengthen its capacity to act on digital matters? How to build an effective digital global cooperation between key stakeholders?

Answering these fundamental questions requires a thorough understanding of the practical application of democratic principles and a broad perspective over the workings of public policy making in democratic systems. WLA – CdM Members, who are all democratic former Heads of State or Government, are in a unique position to provide such perspective, building on their individual and collective experience of inclusive approaches to public policy‐making. This project proposes to bring them together with a variety of stakeholders from the digital community – technological companies, civil society organizations, academics and public policy specialists – to shed light on these issues.

In this context, the Boston Global Forum – a leading convener of open public discussions gathering thought leaders and experts from around the globe ‐ is a partner of choice. Its initiative on a new Social Contract in the Digital Age brings the idea to merge governments, citizens, technological companies, civil society organizations, digital assistants and multilateral organizations with the aim of promoting a balance of power, rights, obligations, and interests to achieve a common digital governance based on the principles of fairness, trust, transparency, and accountability.

Contrasting the North American and European experiences, where digital policy‐making is most dynamic, should allow for the formulation of recommendations for national leaders and policy‐ makers based on best practices and the most innovative ideas to build a new social contract on artificial intelligence and digital governance, which in turn serves to strengthen the role of the multilateral system in this area.

2.     Objectives

In line with their common commitment to inclusive public policy making, the WLA‐CdM and Boston Global Forum propose to support national leaders and public policy‐makers from both sides of the Atlantic to identify ways of engaging technological companies as key stakeholders of digital governance while protecting the democratic mandate that underpins public policy‐ making. In this framework, conclusions and recommendations will also serve as inputs to strengthen the new social contract for artificial intelligence and digital governance, as well as the role of the multilateral system on these themes, harmonizing multilateralism and multistakeholderism approaches, and developing ways of using each to reinforce the effectiveness of the other.

3.     Activities / Methodology

During March 2020, the policy discussion will start with an online dialogue where participants will share their inputs answering a series of questions about the themes that will be addressed.

In April, the policy discussion will last one and a half days:

• On the first day, a roundtable will be developed with approximately 30 participants, among which 15 WLA CdM Members and 15 experts in new technologies and artificial intelligence from different disciplines will be present ‐government, academy, civil society, technology companies‐. This roundtable will be divided into three thematic sessions.
• On the second day, the policy discussion will be an open event that will take place during half a day divided in three

4.     Follow‐up

As a result of the policy lab, a report will be prepared with conclusions and policy recommendations on the issues addressed at the roundtable and in the plenaries sessions.

A second policy discussion will be held in the following months in Europe. After this event, a final report will be prepared.

Download PDF file here 

SPEAKERS 

• Governor Michael Dukakis, Boston Global Forum
• Minister Taro Kono, Japanese Ministry of Defense
• Mr. Yasuhide Nakayama, Former Japanese Foreign Affair Vice Minister
• Prof. Alex Sandy Pentland, MIT
• Prof. Nazli Choucri, MIT
• Assistant Secretary Nam Pham, Massachusetts
• Ms. Rebecca Leeper, AI World Society Innovation Network
• Prof. Thomas Patterson, Harvard

NAZLI CHOUCRI

Member of Boston Global Forum’s Board of Thinkers
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Nazli Choucri is Professor of Political Science of MIT. Her work is in the area of international relations, most notably on sources and consequences of international conflict and violence. Professor Choucri is the architect and Director of the Global System for Sustainable Development (GSSD), a multi-lingual web-based knowledge networking system focusing on the multi-dimensionality of sustainability

Co-founder, member of GC Development Council & Global Citizenship Educators at Global Citizenship Education Network

NAZLI CHOUCRI

Member of Boston Global Forum’s Board of Thinkers

Co-founder, member of GC Development Council & Global Citizenship Educators at Global Citizenship Education Network

Nazli Choucri is Cyber-politics Director of The Michael Dukakis Institute for Leadership and Innovation and Professor of Political Science. Her work is in the area of international relations, most notably on sources and consequences of international conflict and violence. Professor Choucri is the architect and Director of the Global System for Sustainable Development (GSSD), a multi-lingual web-based knowledge networking system focusing on the multi-dimensionality of sustainability. As Principal Investigator of an MIT-Harvard multi-year project on Explorations in Cyber International Relations, she directed a multi-disciplinary and multi-method research initiative. She is Editor of the MIT Press Series on Global Environmental Accord and, formerly, General Editor of the International Political Science Review. She also previously served as the Associate Director of MIT’s Technology and Development Program.

The author of eleven books and over 120 articles, Dr. Choucri is a member of the European Academy of Sciences. She has been involved in research or advisory work for national and international agencies, and for a number of countries, notably Algeria, Canada, Colombia, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Honduras, Japan, Kuwait, Mexico, Pakistan, Qatar, Sudan, Switzerland, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and Yemen. She served two terms as President of the Scientific Advisory Committee of UNESCO’s Management of Social Transformation (MOST) Program.

Michael Dukakis

Co-Founder, Chairman of The Board of Directors and Board of  Thinkers, The Boston Global Forum - Chairman of The Michael Dukakis Institute for Leadership and Innovation
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As Co-Founder and Chairman of The Board of Directors and Board of Thinker of The Boston Global Forum, Michael Stanley Dukakis culminates a half-century career dedicated to public service, political leadership, fostering the careers of young leaders, and scholarly achievement.

Democratic Party Nominee for President of the United States, 1988

Michael Dukakis

Co-Founder, Chairman of The Board of Directors and Board of  Thinkers, The Boston Global Forum - Chairman of The Michael Dukakis Institute for Leadership and Innovation

Democratic Party Nominee for President of the United States, 1988

Chairman of The Michael Dukakis Institute for Leadership and Innovation;

Co-Founder, Chairman of The Board of Directors and Board of  Thinkers, The Boston Global Forum;

Democratic Party Nominee for President of the United States, 1988;

Distinguished Professor J.D., Harvard University

As Co-Founder and Chairman of The Board of Directors and Board of Thinker of The Boston Global Forum, Michael Stanley Dukakis culminates a half-century career dedicated to public service, political leadership, fostering the careers of young leaders, and scholarly achievement.

Together with Nguyen Anh Tuan, this former Massachusetts governor, has established The Boston Global Forum as a globally recognized think tank noted for developing peaceful solutions to some of the world’s most contentious issues, among them: fair labor practices in third-world nations, US-North Korean denuclearization negotiations, and the militarization of the South China Sea. Most recently, Gov. Dukakis has called for the ethical development and deployment of Artificial Intelligence, the Internet of Things and other 21st century Internet advances that permeate out daily lives.

To promote the work of the Boston Global Forum and to recognize those who support its goals, Gov. Dukakis co-created: “World Leader in Peace and Cybersecurity” Award; “World Leader in AI World Society” Award, and the AI World Society Initiative. Together with Nguyen Anh Tuan he also established December 12 as the annual Global Cybersecurity Day. Gov. Dukakis also coauthored, “The concepts of AI-Government,” “Ethics Code of Conduct for Cyber Peace and Security (ECCC),” and the “BGF-G7 Summit Initiative Report.”

Gov. Dukakis’s dedication to public service began modestly when he was elected Town Meeting Member in his native Brookline, Massachusetts, just outside Boston. He was later elected chairman of his town’s Democratic organization in 1960 and won a seat in the Massachusetts Legislature in 1962 where he served four terms as a state legislator. In 1970, he was the Massachusetts Democratic Party’s nominee for Lieutenant Governor and the running mate of Boston Mayor Kevin White in a gubernatorial race lost to Republicans Frank Sargent and Donald Dwight, Jr.

In 1974, he again ran for governor of the Commonwealth beating Gov. Sargent decisively in November of that year. He inherited a record deficit and record high unemployment and is generally credited with digging Massachusetts out of one of its worst financial and economic crises in history. But the effort took its toll. Dukakis was defeated in the Democratic primary in 1978 by Edward King, but came back to defeat King in 1982 and was reelected to an unprecedented third, four-year term in 1986. His colleagues in the National Governors’ Association voted him the most effective governor in the nation that year.

Gov. Dukakis ran for the presidency of the United States in 1988 but was defeated by George Bush. After announcing that he would not seek reelection as governor in 1991, he and his wife, Kitty, spent three months at the University of Hawaii where he was a visiting professor in the Department of Political Science and the School of Public Health. While at the University of Hawaii, he led a series of public forums on the reform of the nation’s health-care system that influenced the creation of Hawaii’s first-in-the-nation universal health insurance system whose lessons were incorporated into the national Affordable Care Act, championed by President Barrack Obama.

In addition to his Boston Global Forum role, Gov. Dukakis is currently a Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Northeastern University and Visiting Professor at the School of Public Policy at UCLA. Recently, he and former U.S. Senator Paul Simon authored, “How to Get Into Politics-and Why,” to provide young people with a road map to a career in public service.

As a life-long public transportation advocate, Gov. Dukakis was nominated by President Bill Clinton for a five-year term as a named to the Board of Directors of Amtrak in 1998. He served a full five-year term on the Amtrak Board as Vice-Chairman. He is often called upon to offer his expertise on rail service to Boston.

Gov. Dukakis continues to live Brookline, where he was born on November 3, 1933 to Panos and Euterpe (Boukis) Dukakis, who had emigrated from Greece and settled there after marrying. He graduated from Brookline High School (1951), Swarthmore College (1955), and Harvard Law School (1960), after which, he served for two years in the United States Army, sixteen months of which were with with the support group to the United Nations delegation of the Military Armistice Commission in Munsan, Korea.

Mike and Kitty Dukakis have three children: John, Andrea, and Kara, and are the proud grandparents of eight grandchildren.

Taro Kono

Japanese Minister of Defense
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Tarō Kōno is a Japanese politician belonging to the Liberal Democratic Party. He is a member of the House of Representatives, and has served as Minister for Defense since a Cabinet re-shuffle by Prime Minister Shinzō Abe on 11 September 2019

Kanagawa 15th Electoral District (elected eight times)

Taro Kono

Japanese Minister of Defense

Kanagawa 15th Electoral District (elected eight times)

Biography

Date	Curriculum Vitae
January 10, 1963	Born
January 1985	Graduated from Georgetown University, USA
February 1986	Joined Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd.
January 1993	Joined Nippon Tanshi Co., Ltd.
October 1996	First entered the Diet by winning a seat in the 41st House of Representatives election (The 15th electoral district of Kanagawa Prefecture)
June 2000	Reelected to the House of Representatives in the 42nd House of Representatives election (The 15th electoral district of Kanagawa Prefecture) (second term)
January 2002	Served as Parliamentary Secretary for Public Management (1st Koizumi Cabinet)
November 2003	Reelected to the House of Representatives in the 43rd House of Representatives election (The 15th electoral district of Kanagawa Prefecture) (third term)
October 2004	Served as the 9th Prefectural Chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party in Kanagawa Prefecture
September 2005	Reelected to the House of Representatives in the 44th House of Representatives election (The 15th electoral district of Kanagawa Prefecture) (fourth term)
November 2005	Served as Senior Vice Minister of Justice (3rd Koizumi Cabinet (Reshuffled))
September 2008	Served as Chairperson of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives
August 2009	Reelected to the House of Representatives in the 45th House of Representatives election (The 15th electoral district of Kanagawa Prefecture) (fifth term)
December 2012	Reelected to the House of Representatives in the 46th House of Representatives election (The 15th electoral district of Kanagawa Prefecture) (sixth term)
December 2014	Reelected to the House of Representatives in the 47th House of Representatives election (The 15th electoral district of Kanagawa Prefecture) (seventh term)
October 2015	National Public Safety Commission Chairman Minister on Administrative Reform and National Public Service System Reform State Minister in Charge of Consumer Affairs, Food Safety, Regulatory Reform and Disaster Management(3rd Abe Cabinet (Reshuffled))
August 2017	Served as Minister for Foreign Affairs (3rd Abe Cabinet (3rd Reshuffled))
October 2017	Reelected to the House of Representatives in the 48th House of Representatives election (The 15th electoral district of Kanagawa Prefecture) (eighth term)
November 2017	Served as Minister for Foreign Affairs (4th Abe Cabinet)
October 2018	Served as Minister for Foreign Affairs (4th Abe Cabinet (Reshuffled))

Hobby :

Reading and watching soccer games

 

Rebecca Leeper

AI World Society Innovation Network - Practitioner
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Excellent technical and business communications skills, written and public speaking. Dedicated to integrating new technology with cross- functional teams. Skilled in planning and executing on strict deadlines. Strong leadership and team-oriented attitude.

BSc (Honors) Computer Engineering, AIWS Practitioner

Rebecca Leeper

AI World Society Innovation Network - Practitioner

BSc (Honors) Computer Engineering, AIWS Practitioner

Qualifications and Skills

Privacy Driven Interdisciplinary Software Engineer

BSc (Honors) Computer Engineering, AIWS Practitioner

Excellent technical and business communications skills, written and public speaking. Dedicated to integrating new technology with cross-
functional teams. Skilled in planning and executing on strict deadlines. Strong leadership and team-oriented attitude.

Languages: Java, C++, Python, C#, C, XAML, XML, MySQL, HTML, MIPS
IDEs & Tools: PyCharm, IntelliJ, Visual Studio, Xcode, Sublime, Atom, Cisco NSO, Camunda Workflow Engine, Git, ViroMedia, Docker,
Yang, Ansible, Git, Lux, pytes, Junit, Squarespace, Mailchimp, Microsoft Office

Awards and Honors

Northeastern University Commencement, 2019 Class Orator (1:34:08) May 2019
• Selected to deliver the 10-minute Student Address to 25,000 people at TD Garden
Northeastern University College of Engineering Senior Capstone Competition, 3rd Place Winner May 2019
• Placed 3rd of 20 in technical competition judged by industry leaders in the Greater Boston Area
Order of the Engineer, Inducted Member May 2019
• Association of graduate and professional engineersthat emphasizes leadership, pride, and responsibility in the engineering profession
Blanche Z. Greenberger Award, Recipient May 2019
• Highest award granted to an Alpha Epsilon Phi collegian in recognition of academic achievement, service, and leadership

Professional Experience

Technical
Data Ductus Inc., Maynard, MA August 2019-Present
Software Engineer: Network and software engineering consulting
• Contribute software engineering expertise in design and integration of solutions through software lifecycle, from requirements
definition, development, testing, through deployment
• Participate in sales and client presentations due to ability to translate user needs into software solutions
• Address application technical bugs and issues for timely resolution
Consulting Projects:
Service provider greenfield/brownfield provisioning (Python, pytest, Java, Lux, NSO, Yang); Network reconciliation (Python, NSO);
Various automation scripting (Python)
Data Ductus Inc., Maynard, MA July-December 2018
Software Engineer (Full-Time Co-Op): Network and software engineering and consulting
• Designed and prototyped new software service integrating open source platforms (Ansible, Camunda, Python)
• Developed and integrated first Camunda integration test, and multiple unit tests in a telecommunications migration project (Java,
Junit, Powermockito)
• Developed software enhancements and remediated multiple bugs in agile development cycle (Python, Java)
• Critical analysis and Threat Model evaluation of software in Cisco Secure Development Lifecycle (CSDL) toolbox
Textron GeoSpatial Solutions, Wilmington, MA July-December 2017
Software Engineer (Full-Time Co-Op): Software application enhancements and maintenance
• Remediated multiple bugs in mature satellite imagery exploitation WPF application (C++, C#, and XAML)
• Developed and integrated voice control into the application
Textron Weapon and Sensor Systems, Wilmington, MA July-December 2016
Computer Engineer (Full-Time Co-Op): Research and development of a correlation tracker
• Developed five real time standard tracking demos, integrating and applying the openCV image processing library (C++)
• Discovered the VOT (Visual Object Tracker Database) for benchmark standards of state-of-the-art correlation trackers
Cyber Policy
Northeastern University, Global Resilience Institute, Boston, MA January 2019- May 2019
Research Assistant, CINet Project
Space Security Conference 2019, United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research, Geneva, Switzerland May 2019
Northeastern University Delegate

AI For Good Global Summit, International Telecommunications Union, Geneva, Switzerland May 2018, May 2019
Northeastern University Delegate
Harvard University, Belfer Center, Cambridge, MA August 2017-December 2019
Research Assistant, Information Sharing Project
Relevant Research Papers:
• Can They Block Me!? A Review of How Courts are Qualifying Government Social Media Accounts with Respect to Public Forums, 2019
• Racial Facial? The Ethical Considerations of Facial Recognition Technology Deployed in Body Worn Cameras, 2019
• Regulating Fully Autonomous Weapons, 2017
• Regulation on Cyber Warfare, 2017
Public Service
Committee to Elect Damali Vidot, Chelsea, MA August 2019-November 2019
Communications Director and Campaign Scheduler
• At-Large candidate earned the most votes in a municipal election since 2011, doubling Hispanic and low-income voter turnout
• Lead and developed media and communications strategy increasing Facebook and Twitter followers by 20%
• Wrote, edited, and designed press releases, all social media content, newspaper ads, weekly newsletters and community outreach
efforts, and campaign literature
• Designed, developed, and wrote all content for candidate website: https://www.votedamali.org/
• Coordinated, managed, and lead scheduling, staff meetings, forums, and events
Global Governance of International Security & Politics of Diplomacy Course, Geneva, Switzerland January-July 2019
Teaching Fellow and Leadership Assistant
• Assisted with curriculum planning, grading organization of high-level meetings at the United Nations, and candidate interviewing
• Delivered full-class lecture: Emerging Cyber Security Threats
• Served as head academic advisor to all STEM students
The Cambridge Women’s Center, Cambridge, MA July 2017-July 2018
Volunteer
• Weekly shifts supervising the domestic violence hot-line and providing support to visitors and members
• IT support and initiated migration to Google Drive for volunteer and organization documents, scheduling, and communications
Global Governance of International Security & Politics of Diplomacy Course, Geneva, Switzerland May-June 2017
Visiting Student Researcher

Academic History

Northeastern University, Boston, MA | GPA 3.501 May 2019
Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering, Cum Laude, with a minor in International Security Studies.
Computer Engineering and Security Studies Electives:
Introduction to Machine Learning and Pattern Recognition; Law and Ethics of Digital Technology; Computer Architecture &
Organization; Computer Systems; International Conflict & Negotiation; The Arab-Israeli Conflict; Ethnic Political Violence
Leadership and Activities:
• College of Social Sciences and Humanities, International Conflict and Negotiation, Teaching Assistant Fall 2018
• Northeastern Husky Call Center, Student Fundraiser January-August 2018
• Northeastern Office of Alumni Relations, Students Today Alumni Tomorrow, Student Leader 2018-2019
• Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Student Advisory Board, Student Representative 2017-2019
• The Gordon Institute Engineering Leadership Program, Selected Participant July-December 2017
• Embark: The Undergraduate Applied Science and Engineering Review, Co-President 2018 2016-2019
• Student Government Association, Operational Appeals Board, Justice 2016-2019
• Alpha Epsilon Phi, Phi Omega Chapter (2014-2019), President 2018 2014-2019
– Chapter of the Year 2018, Community Service Award 2018, Risk Management Award 2018
Relevant Technical Projects:
TWIST: Through-Wall Imaging System & Technology Spring 2019
• Integrated MIT Prof. Dina Katabi’s through-wall visualization research with augmented reality (ViroMedia)
Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) to Classify Street Signs June 2018
• Designed a six-layer CNN that achieved 90% accuracy on the Belgium Street Sign dataset (Python, Tensorflow)
Interactive Website Linked to Backend SQL Database Fall 2015
• Full stack development creating website with user access to backend database (HTML, Microsoft Access, MySQL).

Yasuhide Nakayama

Former Japanese Foreign Affair Vice Minister
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Yasuhide Nakayama is a Japanese politician representing the Liberal Democratic Party, elected in December 2012 as a member of the House of Representatives of Japan and was re-elected in the December 2015 and 2017 elections. Mr Nakayama is the current State Minister for Foreign Affairs in the Japanese cabinet

Japanese politician representing the Liberal Democratic Party

Yasuhide Nakayama

Former Japanese Foreign Affair Vice Minister

Japanese politician representing the Liberal Democratic Party

Yasuhide Nakayama is a Japanese politician representing the Liberal Democratic Party, elected in December 2012 as a member of the House of Representatives of Japan and was re-elected in the December 2015 and 2017 elections. Mr Nakayama is the current State Minister for Foreign Affairs in the Japanese cabinet.

Education

• Graduate School, Waseda University

Career

• Secretary to the Minister of Construction
• Advertising Agency Employee
• State Minister for Foreign Affairs
• Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs
• Director, Committee on Economy, Trade and Industry, HR
• Chief Director, Special Committee on North Korean Abduction and Other Issues, HR
• Director, Committee on Security, HR
• Director, Public Speeches Division, LDP
• Director-General, Information Bureau, LDP
• Chief Secretary, Research Commission on Security, LDP

Parliamentary Friendship Association Attached

• Japan-US Parliamentary Association
• Japan-Israel Parliamentary Friendship Association
• Japan-France Parliamentary Friendship Association

Area of Interest

• Foreign Affairs
• Defense
• Abduction issue

THOMAS PATTERSON

Co-Founder and Member of Board of Directors, Boston Global Forum
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Thomas E. Patterson is Co-Founder and Member of Board of Directors, Boston Global Forum, and Research Director of The Michael Dukakis Institute for Leadership and Innovation

Research Director of The Michael Dukakis Institute for Leadership and Innovation

THOMAS PATTERSON

Co-Founder and Member of Board of Directors, Boston Global Forum

Research Director of The Michael Dukakis Institute for Leadership and Innovation

Thomas E. Patterson is Research Director of The Michael Dukakis Institute for Leadership and Innovation. Heis a Professor of Government and the Press of Harvard Kennedy School and has served as the Acting Director of Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy since July 1, 2015. His book, The Vanishing Voter, looks at the causes and consequences of electoral participation. His earlier book on the media’s political role, Out of Order, received the American Political Science Association’s Graber Award as the best book of the decade in political communication. His first book, The Unseeing Eye, was named by the American Association for Public Opinion Research as one of the 50 most influential books on public opinion in the past half century.

He also is author of Mass Media Election and two general American government texts: The American Democracy and We the People. His articles have appeared in Political Communication, Journal of Communication, and other academic journals, as well as in the popular press. His research has been funded by the Ford, Markle, Smith-Richardson, Pew, Knight, Carnegie, and National Science foundation.

Patterson received his PhD from the University of Minnesota in 1971.

ALEX ‘SANDY’ PENTLAND

Co-founder of The Social Contract 2020 - Professor of Media Arts and Sciences
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Professor Alex ‘Sandy’ Pentland directs the MIT Connection Science and Human Dynamics labs and previously helped create and direct the MIT Media Lab and the Media Lab Asia in India. He is one of the most-cited scientists in the world, and Forbes recently declared him one of the “7 most powerful data scientists in the world” along with Google founders and the Chief Technical Officer of the United States

Media Lab Entrepreneurship Program Director

ALEX ‘SANDY’ PENTLAND

Co-founder of The Social Contract 2020 - Professor of Media Arts and Sciences

Media Lab Entrepreneurship Program Director

Professor Alex ‘Sandy’ Pentland directs the MIT Connection Science and Human Dynamics labs and previously helped create and direct the MIT Media Lab and the Media Lab Asia in India. He is one of the most-cited scientists in the world, and Forbes recently declared him one of the “7 most powerful data scientists in the world” along with Google founders and the Chief Technical Officer of the United States.  co-led the World Economic Forum discussion in Davos that led to the EU privacy regulation GDPR, and was central in forging the transparency and accountability mechanisms in the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.  He has received numerous awards and prizes such as the McKinsey Award from Harvard Business Review, the 40th Anniversary of the Internet from DARPA, and the Brandeis Award for work in privacy.

He is a founding member of advisory boards for Google, AT&T, Nissan, and the UN Secretary General, a serial entrepreneur who has co-founded more than a dozen companies including social enterprises such as the Data Transparency Lab and the Harvard-ODI-MIT DataPop Alliance . He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering and leader within the World Economic Forum.

Over the years Sandy has advised more than 60 PhD students. Almost half are now tenured faculty at leading institutions, with another one-quarter leading industry research groups and a final quarter founders of their own companies. Together Sandy and his students have pioneered computational social science, organizational engineering, wearable computing (Google Glass), image understanding, and modern biometrics. His most recent books are Social Physics, published by Penguin Press, and Honest Signals, published by MIT Press.

Interesting experiences include dining with British Royalty and the President of India, staging fashion shows in Paris, Tokyo, and New York, and developing a method for counting beavers from space.

NAM PHAM

Massachusetts - Assistant Secretary
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The Assistant Secretary of Business Development and International Trade, Government of Massachusetts

Assistant Secretary of Business Development

NAM PHAM

Massachusetts - Assistant Secretary

Assistant Secretary of Business Development

Nam joined the Baker/Polito Administration as the Assistant Secretary of Business Development which

oversees the Mass. Office of Business Development, Mass. Office of Travel and Tourism, Mass. Film

Office and Mass. Office of International Trade & Investment. Previously Nam was the CEO of

Vietnamese American Initiative for Development (VietAID).

Nam has been a commercial banker for more than 20 years in both lending and credit for premier

community banks and large commercial banks. From 1994 to 2000 Nam served as Commissioner of

Massachusetts Office for Refugees and Immigrants, and Deputy Director of the Massachusetts Office of

International Trade & Investment.

Nam earned his BS degree in Business Administration from the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School

of Management, and MPA in Political Economy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

DISCUSSANTS

• Adrien Abecassis, Advisor for European Affairs and Senior Political Advisor to the President of France
• Prof. Constantine Arvanitopouluos, Tufts, Former Greek Minister of Education, Culture
• Nicola De Blasio, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center, Harvard Kennedy School
• Anders Corr, President of Corr Analyst
• Sharon Dow, Operating Partner, Dow Private
• Prof. Duc Tran University of Massachusetts at Boston
• Juan Gallego, Noreastern University
• Lyndon Haviland, Adviser of United Nations Secretary General
• Dang Thu Hien, Fellow, University of Massachusetts at Boston
• Eugene B. Kogan, Executive Director, American Secretaries of State Project
• Andrew Lewman, Vice President of DarkOwl
• Van McComick, Founding Director, International Economic Alliance
• Fernando Morera, EY
• Barry Nolan, Executive Board Member of Boston Global Forum, Adviser of US Congress
• Bill Ottman, Co-Founder and CEO of Minds.com
• Jean Marc Paudraud, Business Leader in Boston
• Dick Pirozzolo, Writer
• Prof. Marc Rotenberg, President of EPIC
• Jeff Saviano, EY
• Anina Schwarzenbach, Fellow Belfer Center, Harvard Kennedy School
• Prof. Jeffrey Shaw, Naval War College
• Prof. H. David Sherman, Northeastern University
• Michael Siegel, Principal Research Scientist, Director, Cybersecurity at MIT Sloan
• Prof. David Silbersweig, Harvard
• Kate Stebbins, University of Massachusetts
• Prof. Peter Szolovits, MIT
• Nguyen Anh Tuan, Boston Global Forum
• Dang Minh Tuan, Fulbright Scholar at New York University (NYU)
• Tommy Vallely, Harvard
• Prof. Christo Wilson, Berkman Center, Harvard
• Prof. Josephine Wolff, Tufts University
• Lauren Zabierek, Executive Director of Cybersecurity Project, Belfer Center, Harvard Kennedy School

You can download detail Agenda here

The Boston Global Forum and Michael Dukakis Institute for Leadership and Innovation will organize the AI World Society Conference on 1:30 pm, September 23, 2019 at Harvard University Faculty Club, to introduce and discuss the Social Contract 2020 and rules and laws for AI and the Internet.

The keynote speaker is Professor Alex Sandy Pentland, who directs the MIT Connection Science and Human Dynamics labs and had previously helped create and direct the MIT Media Lab and the Media Lab Asia in India. He is one of the most-cited scientists in the world and Forbes recently declared him one of the “7 most powerful data scientists in the world”, along with the Google founders and the Chief Technical Officer of the United States; he also co-led the World Economic Forum discussion in Davos that led to the EU privacy regulation GDPR and was central in forging the transparency and accountability mechanisms in the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.  He has received numerous awards and prizes, such as the McKinsey Award from Harvard Business Review, the 40th Anniversary of the Internet from DARPA, and the Brandeis Award for work in privacy.

Professor Pentland is a co-founder of the Social Contract 2020 and a member of the Board of Thinkers of the Boston Global Forum.

Following the speech of Professor Pentland, Professor Christo Wilson, Northeastern University, Harvard Law School Fellow, and Michael Dukakis Leadership Fellow, will present solutions for AI transparency.

Then, Paul F. Nemitz and Michel Servoz will present Rules and International Laws of AI World Society.

Paul F. Nemitz is the Principal Advisor in the Directorate General for Justice and Consumers. He was appointed by the European Commission on 12 April 2017, following a 6-year appointment as Director for Fundamental Rights and Citizen’s Rights in the same Directorate General. As Director, Nemitz led the reform of Data Protection legislation in the EU, the negotiations of the EU – US Privacy Shield, and the negotiations with major US Internet Companies of the EU Code of Conduct against incitement to violence and hate speech on the Internet. He also is a team member of The Social Contract 2020.

Mr. Michael Servoz is the Special Adviser to the President of European Commission, Senior Adviser for  “Robotics, Artificial Intelligence and the Future of European Labour Law” – European Political Strategy Centre (EPSC).

Scholars of Harvard, MIT, Tufts will join the AI World Society Conference as participants.

Download Agenda for this conference here

SPEAKERS AND DISCUSSANTS

• Governor Michael Dukakis, Co-founder and Chairman of the Boston Global Forum, Co-Chair
• Stratos Efthymiou, Consul General of Greece in Boston, Co-Chair
• Prof. Stephen Walt, Harvard Kennedy School
• Prof. Nazli Choucri, MIT
• Prof. Thomas Patterson, Harvard Kennedy School
• Prof. David Silbersweig, Harvard Medical School
• Prof. Thomas Creely, Naval War College
• Barry Nolan, Adviser of US Congress
• Nguyen Anh Tuan, Co-founder and CEO of the Boston Global Forum
• Prof. Constantine Arvanitopoulos, the Karamanlis Chair at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Professor of International Relation, Tufts University
• Prof. Christo Wilson, Northeastern University, Harvard Law School Fellow, Michael Dukakis Leadership Fellow
• Nguyen Phan Nguyet Minh, AI World Society Young Leader

You can download detail Agenda here 

Wed 26 Jun 2019 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM (Time zone: Eastern Time US & Ca)

If you would like to join the discussion online you can watch the event live at webtv.un.org.

Our speaker will be Dr. David A. Bray, whose talk Artificial Intelligence, the Internet and the Future of Data: Where Will We Be in 2045? , will examine the impact of technology on the mission of the UN 100 years after its creation.

Dr. Bray has served as Executive Director for the People-Centered Internet Coalition focused on providing support and expertise for community-based projects that measurably improve people’s lives using the internet. Business Insider named him one of the top “24 Americans Who Are Changing the World under 40″ and he was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum for 2016-2021, a Marshall Memorial Fellow and a Senior Fellow with the Institute for Human-Machine Cognition.

Dr. Bray’s talk will be followed by reflections of discussants and a larger conversation with the audience. The invited discussants include:

• Fabrizio Hochschild, United Nations Under Secretary-General and Special Adviser on the Preparations for the Commemoration of the Seventy-Fifth Anniversary of the United Nations

• David Silbersweig, Stanley Cobb Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School

• Mariko Gakiya, Director, Global Leadership for Health, Peace and Human Security, Boston Global Forum

• Nam Pham, Department of Business Development and International Trade , State of Massachusetts

• Atefeh Riazi, UN Assistant Secretary-General, Chief Information Technology Officer , United Nations Office of Information and Communications Technology

Boston, May 28, 2019

Dear friends,

In a world that is being buffeted on every side by technological innovations, political transitions and social turmoil, there is one thing most people can readily agree on about: The coming revolution of Artificial Intelligence holds both enormous promise and great potential peril.

The real world applications of AI will bring revolutionary changes and will have profound effects on the future of humanity. The changes will bring challenges to societal norms and economic models that we have relied on for decades. And we would be wise to prepare for all that will mean.

A century and a half ago, the industrial revolution brought with its great benefits that freed millions from back breaking toil and lifted our standard of living. But the industrial revolution also brought wrenching economic dislocation, new problems and new risks. And so, it will surely be with the coming AI revolution. Innovations now in the pipeline will bring economic dislocations and other risks that may well threaten peace and security around the globe. Our world as we know it could end, not with a bang, but rather with the click-click-click of a cyber attack.

In the past, when technological innovations led to the creation of terrible new weapons, it was only after they were used in warfare that the world came together to craft agreements, sign conventions, and work in union to prohibit their future use.

Technological innovation has now produced the threat of large-scale Cyber warfare. So, let’s do things differently this time. Let’s come together before these revolutionary weapons are used in acts of war between nation states. Let’s act now to develop global standards, International laws, societal norms, and binding conventions before the coming revolution sets loose terrible new destructive forces.

Our national governments have been slow to act. And International bodies such as the United Nations have yet to effectively address the problem. That is why the Boston Global Forum is calling for civilian organizations, non-profits, NGOs, and leaders, thinkers, scholars of every view and variety around the world, to join hands in an effort to build the Artificial Intelligence World Society.

And it is why we invite you now, to join in this important work, before the malware starts flying. We ask for your help and insights. We ask you to point us toward the breakthrough solutions that will help insure that the world gets all the best from applied artificial intelligence, while minimizing the threats and dangers.

We hope to make the AI World Society Summit a place where the brightest minds on the planet can work together, to find the innovative solutions that will help us build a brighter future. We ask you to join us, and we ask for your insights.

Here is our email address to send us your thoughts:
[email protected]

Here is our “snail mail” address to send us your correspondence:
67 Mount Vernon street, Unit F, Beacon Hill, Boston, MA 02108, USA

Here is a link where you can sign up to get our newsletter:

We look forward to hearing your ideas.

Sincerely.

Governor Michael Dukakis, Chairman and Co-founder of the Boston Global Forum

Nguyen Anh Tuan, CEO and Co-founder of the Boston Global Forum

On May 8, 2019, on behalf of the Boston Global Forum, Mr. Nguyen Anh Tuan – the CEO of the Boston Global Forum, held a meeting with Mr. Vint Cerf, “the father of Internet”, Vice President, Chief Internet Evangelist of Google, to award him with the World Leader in AI World Society Award. Earlier on April 25, 2019, at the Artificial Intelligence World Society – G7 Summit Conference held at Loeb House, Harvard University, the Boston Global Forum has honored him. 

During the meeting which was held at Mr. Vint Cerf’s office, the two great minds had discussed about the big changes that are happening in the world in the late 20th and 21st century – the Age of the Enlightenment of Internet and Artificial Intelligence. Together, they talked about how AI and the Internet can be utilized to do great things, and how to minimize the negative aspects and risks that AI can pose to humanity. Mr. Nguyen Anh Tuan and Mr. Vint Cerf agreed sanctions and laws from the civilized and progressive world community are needed to prevent these threats and risks.

Currently, governments lag behind on creating laws that prevent the negative aspects of AI; therefore, there is an immediate need to connect like-minded thinkers, scholars, innovators, business leaders, and non-governmental organizations, etc., to build alliances in order to make the world a peaceful, safe, and new democracy with artificial intelligence and the Internet. Mr. Nguyen Anh Tuan and Mr. Vint Cerf have the enthusiasm, similar goals, and a common path with regards to the future of AI and the Internet and how these inventions can improve lives of people around the world. The meeting opens new initiatives and programs to turn their enthusiasm and ideas into reality. Mr. Nguyen Anh Tuan and Mr. Vint Cerf made appointments for the next meetings and discussions in Boston in July and in other cities to discuss about how AI World Society Summit can make meaningful contributions to humanity.

Mr. Nguyen Anh Tuan was the Director of Teltic Informatics Center, Khanh Hoa Post and Telecom of Vietnam Post and Telecom Corporation (VNPT). At that time, he applied Internet communication protocol TCP / IP invented by Vint Cerf, to build the VietNet Information Highway, Vietnam’s first public computer network using TCP / IP, providing services for the whole of Vietnam since January 1996, 2 years before Vietnam officially provided Internet services. Starting from VietNet network, and with VietNet, Mr. Nguyen Anh Tuan was honored as one of the Top Ten Outstanding Young Talents in 1996.