The European Court of Justice this week sided with the Austrian privacy advocate Max Schrems and found that “Privacy Shield,” the framework for data transfers from Europe to the United States, does not protect the personal information of Europeans. The decision will have far-reaching implications for trans-Atlantic trade, tech, data protection, and democratic governance. To continue transfers of personal data from Europe to the US — key to the continued growth of the US tech industry — the US will need to update domestic privacy laws and establish a data protection agency. Several bills now pending in Congress would do this, though the prospects for passage in an election year remain unclear.
This is the second successful challenge that Schrems has brought to the Court of Justice. In 2015, the Court struck down “Safe Harbor” after Schrems argued that the first EU-US framework lacked sufficient safeguards for personal data. US and EU negotiators then put together Privacy Shield, but many doubted the Court of Justice would endorse the revised data transfer policy, particularly after Europe enacted the General Data Protection Regulation, a comprehensive new privacy law to protect the personal information of Europeans.
The “Schrems I” decision arose in 2015 against the backdrop of the 2013 Snowden disclosures and concern that US intelligence agencies had too easy access to the personal data gathered by US tech firms. These concerns remain in the European Court’s opinion in “Schrems II.” Current US surveillance law contains few safeguards for non-US persons and the US remains one of the few democratic countries in the world without a data protection agency. But the second Schrems decision appears in 2020 when there is also growing concern about the fairness of Artificial Intelligence techniques, the unregulated use of face surveillance, and the recognition that mass surveillance curbs democratic freedoms and solidifies authoritarian governments. Europe itself has made strengthening democratic institutions and adherence to the rule of law top priorities over the next several years. So, the impact of the Schrems II decision will likely reach beyond EU-US relations. Other governments also collect and process the personal data of Europeans — the decision of the European court will have global consequences.
The Center for AI and Digital Policy, founded in 2020, advises governments on technology policy.
Marc Rotenberg, Director
Center for AI and Digital Policy at Michael Dukakis Institute
British MP Sir Iain Duncan Smith criticized China and saw China as a big threat and peril to the peace and security of the world in his speech at the Democratic Alliance on Digital Governance Conference on July 1, 2020. Governor Michael Dukakis, co-founder and chair of the Boston Global Forum (BGF), moderated this conference with other speakers and panelists that included
Political Leaders: Liam Byrne, UK Member of Parliament, the Chair of the Parliamentary Network on the World Bank & IMF, Ichiro Fujisaki, former Japanese Ambassador to US, Senator Kimberley Kitching, Parliament of Australia, Co-chair of Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), Miriam Lexmann, Member of European Parliament, Co-chair of IPAC, Jamil Mahuad, former President of Ecuador, Beatriz Merino, former Prime Minister of Peru, Yasuhide Nakayama, Member of the House of Representatives of Japan, the State Minister for Foreign Affairs, Andreas Norlén, Speaker of the Swedish Parliament, Nam Pham, Assistant Secretary, Massachusetts, Vaira Vike-Freiberga, former President of Latvia.
Scholars and Thinkers: Professor Nazli Choucri (MIT), Prof. Koichi Hamada (Yale), Prof. Joseph Nye (Harvard Kennedy School), Prof. Thomas Patterson (Harvard Kennedy School), Prof. Alex Pentland (MIT), Marc Rotenberg (Director of the Center on AI and Digital Policy (CAIDP), Michael Dukakis Institute, former President of EPIC), Prof. David Silbersweig (Harvard), Nguyen Anh Tuan (CEO of the Boston Global Forum (BGF)), Prof. Dick Vietor (Harvard Business School)
On July 1, 2020, at Democratic Alliance on Digital Governance conference, Professor Joseph Nye, Member of the BGF Board of Thinkers, Mentor of AIWS.net, presented his view about US-China relations in the section “New Alliance, New Order, New Democracy” with other speakers and panelists.
On July 1, 2020, at Democratic Alliance on Digital Governance conference, organized by the Boston Global Forum, Professor Richard Vietor, Harvard Business School presented “Global Economic Effects of COVID-19 Pandemic” at the section “New Supply Chain, New Economy, New Democracy”.
Some thoughts on Global Supply-chains
Supply chain disruption not new – Japanese tsunami (2011), global financial crisis (2008-09);
Either demand or supply shocks;
Pandemic presents countries with both demand and supply shocks;
Hits major global economic centers almost simultaneously;
Tradeoff is one of static efficiency; just-in-time production, hyper-specialization, minimizing inventories…
S. – China trade war has significantly exacerbated re-shoring or diversification
During the section “New Alliance,New Order,New Democracy”, she presented on how China impacted in Peru.
Beatriz Merino is a panelist of this section at Democratic Alliance on Digital Governance conference on July 1, 2020, organized by the Boston Global Forum (BGF). She is the representative of the BGF in Peru.
Artificial intelligence is beginning to be usefully deployed in almost every industry from customer call centers and finance to drug research. Yet the field is also plagued by relentless hype, opaque jargon and esoteric technology making it difficult for outsiders identify the most interesting companies.
To cut through the spin, Forbes partnered with venture firms Sequoia Capital and Meritech Capital to create our second annual AI 50, a list of private, U.S.-based companies that are using artificial intelligence in meaningful business-oriented ways. To be included, companies had to be privately-held and focused on techniques like machine learning (where systems learn from data to improve on tasks), natural language processing (which enables programs to “understand” written or spoken language), or computer vision (which relates to how machines “see”).
The list was compiled through a submission process open to any AI company in the U.S. The application asked companies to provide details on their technology, business model, customers and financials like funding, valuation and revenue history (companies had the option to submit information confidentially, to encourage greater transparency). In total, Forbes received about 400 entries. From there, our VC partners applied an algorithm to identify the 100 with the highest quantitative scores and then a panel of eight expert AI judges identified the 50 most compelling companies.
To support AI application in the world society, Artificial Intelligence World Society Innovation Network (AIWS.net) created AIWS Young Leaders program including some MIT Researchers, as well as Young Leaders and Experts from Australia, Austria, Belgium, Britain, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, France, Finland, Germany, Greece, India, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United States, and Vietnam.
The Boston Global Forum honored President Vaira Vike-Freiberga with the World Leader for Peace and Security Award 2019. She also is a member of the Boston Global Forum’s Board of Thinkers.
Australian Senator Kimberley Kitching, co-chair of Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), had a very impressive speech at Democratic Alliance on Digital Governance Conference – Protecting and Strengthening Democracy in the aftermath of COVID-19 July 1, 2020, organized by the Boston Global Forum.
She criticized Chinese leaders for using sanctions and other economic attacks as weapons to attack countries that criticize China in the pandemic, such as making economy of Australia difficult after the Australian government asked to investigate COVID-19. She also shared unfair responses of Chinese leaders when Australian leaders asked for dialog.
China is a real peril and danger to peace and security around the world.
Political messaging can have a huge impact on public responses to crises. In the US, academics warn that divisions between Republican and Democratic lawmakers are wrecking efforts to contain the virus. Now, a new AI tool has shown just how fractured their rhetoric has been.
Researchers from Ohio State University trained the algorithm to guess which political party members of Congress belonged to by analyzing their tweets about the pandemic. It correctly identified their party 76% of the time, according to their study.
The AI scanned all 30,887 tweets that current members of Congress wrote about COVID-19, from the first one on January 17 to March 31. Notably, the polarization wasn’t evident at the start of the outbreak.
In the week following the first mention of COVID-19, the algorithm struggled to determine whether a Republican or a Democrat had written the tweets. But its accuracy rapidly improved as the parties diverged in their responses to the pandemic.
“We found that once the parties started to figure out the political implications of the issue, polarization was evident in the tweets pretty quickly,” said study co-author Jon Green.
The AI found that Democrats discussed the crisis more frequently than GOP politicians. In total, they sent 19,803 tweets about COVID-19, while Republicans only sent out 11,084. This gap widened as the pandemic engulfed the US.
The two parties also used vastly different language to discuss the pandemic. Democrats placed greater emphasis on threats to public health and workers, whereas Republicans were more focused on China and businesses — and often framed the pandemic as a war.
According to Artificial Intelligence World Society Innovation Network (AIWS.net), AI can be an important tool to serve and strengthen democracy, human rights, and the rule of law. In this effort, AIWS.net invites participation and collaboration with think tanks, universities, non-profits, companies, and other entities that share its commitment to the constructive and development of AI, especially in Covid-19 pandemic.
