President Vaira Vike-Freiberga, World Leader for Peace and Cybersecurity Award gave a broad overview of the essential concerns that face us in connection with an AI International Accord. Some principles or guidelines for the strongest nations should be developed – civil society needs to continue to have a voice and think tanks like the MDI should work towards a new Social Contract to insure this. Furthermore, the general economy and human rights are two main concerns in regards to AI. The awareness and interest of society needs to be captured to invoke long term thinking in regards to AI.
Professor Choucri started by touching on challenges, opportunities and imperatives that AI poses.
Challenges
- How to establish stable principles and processes in a context that is rapidly changing
- No longer just governments, also private sectors, NGOs and individuals
Opportunities
- Figuring out what has worked best when, how and why in regards to international agreements and frameworks?
- Lines of cleavages have not yet been drawn, it is still fluid. We have potential to find ways to cooperate and transform these cleavages
Imperatives
- Governments do not really control AI realm, there are also many private actors
- How to regulate without dampening innovation
She ended by stating that the most immediate path is to take into account and connect with other constituencies that like us are trying to respond to AI reality, that we need a multi-stakeholder support system.
