by Editor | Sep 8, 2019 | News
Governor Michael Dukakis, Co-founder and Chairman of the Boston Global Forum, and Consul General of Greece in Boston, Stratos Efthymion, will co-chair a roundtable discussion to build a framework for peace and security in the 21st century. The Boston Global Forum, Michael Dukakis Institute for Leadership, and Innovation and Greece Consulate General in Boston are co-hosting this Roundtable on World Reconciliation Day at 5:30 pm, September 9, 2019 at the Greece Consulate.
Professor Stephen Walt, Harvard Kennedy School; Professor Nazli Choucri, MIT; Professor Thomas Patterson, Harvard Kennedy School; Professor David Silbersweig, Harvard Medical School; Professor Constantine Arvanitopulos, Tufts, Former Minister of Greece; Professor Thomas Creely, Naval World College; and AI World Society Young Leaders will join.
Participants will discuss about threats and challenges of peace and security, solutions to solve these threats, and propose ideas for Framework for Peace and Security in the 21st Century.
On World Reconciliation Day September 9, 2017 at Harvard University Faculty Club, the Boston Global Forum was proposed an initiative for peace and security in the Korean Peninsula.
by Editor | Sep 8, 2019 | News
In August 2019, the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School published the paper “Attacking Artificial Intelligence: AI’s Security Vulnerability and What Policymakers Can Do About It” by Marcus Comiter.
Christo Wilson, Associate Professor, Khoury College of Computer Sciences, Northeastern University, a team member of the Social Contract 2020, and a Michael Dukakis Leadership Fellow, comments on this report:
“This is a pretty decent report. My only quibble is their term “AI attack” — in the cybersecurity community, these attacks are known as “adversarial learning”. If you look up the former term you won’t find anything, but the latter term will turn up all the relevant academic literature. The resident expert on adversarial learning at Northeastern is Alina Oprea, formerly of RSA Labs. I’m happy to make an introduction if it’s useful.
The problems outlined in the report are very real. Machine learning, wonderful as it can be, is also surprisingly brittle and downright dumb. One of my favorite examples is the case where a researcher fabricated an odd looking pair of sunglasses: when worn, it caused a facial recognition system to erroneously identify them as a celebrity. Adversarial learning is one of the hottest topics in cybersecurity at the moment, and there is an equal amount of work being done to identify new attack vectors, as well as harden machine learning systems against attacks. It’s still early days though, and there’s a lot of work to be done on both sides.”
by Editor | Sep 8, 2019 | News
Over sixty years ago, A Dartmouth professor named John McCarthy coined a term that would become an enormously successful, and problematic, marketing slogan: artificial intelligence. The term AI is now ubiquitous in the technology industry. Its use bears little relation to the things with which McCarthy was concerned, and it’s often used to sex-up stuff that has little to with what practitioners of artificial intelligence care about.
Today’s use of the term AI in industry often has nothing to do with that. If one digs into the details, many things that are claimed to be AI are nothing more than the application of statistics to large quantities of data to try and find patterns. That can be a worthwhile endeavor in itself, but it’s not necessarily very forward-looking. It’s more likely to be a novel application of well-developed methods within statistics and programming.
AI will stick around in the language for the foreseeable future because it can be a useful catch-all phrase for techniques at the edge of computer science, what Minsky referred to as just trying stuff out until something works. Just remember that when you hear the term used in industry, it doesn’t actually denote a Terminator, and most of the time it doesn’t even mean cutting-edge computer science. Most of the time, it’s just hype.
The original article can be found here.
According to Michael Dukakis Institute for Leadership and Innovation (MDI), AI can be an important tool to serve and strengthen democracy, human rights, and the rule of law. However, its misuse could undermine those ideals. In this effort, 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 AI.
by Editor | Sep 8, 2019 | News
Healthcare systems have evolved rapidly during the last decade and are now providing a variety of benefits to patients throughout the globe. This is because the healthcare industry has embraced artificial intelligence and is currently utilizing its many applications to provide a better and safer experience to patients suffering from different ailments.
However, while discussing the benefits of Artificial Intelligence (AI) brings to the healthcare industry, one shouldn’t forget that all that glitters isn’t gold. According to Bob Kocher, MD, an adjunct professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine, “if we are not careful, AI could…unintentionally exacerbate many of the worst aspects of our current healthcare system.” This doesn’t mean the advantages of AI should be ignored.
We need to remember that AI is highly dependable on machine learning algorithms; only a person, a specialized doctor, in this case, can view a patient holistically and consider several other factors before coming up with a treatment plan. Plus, as Eliezer Yudkowsky, the co-founder of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute, warns, “By far, the greatest danger of Artificial Intelligence is that people conclude too early that they understand it”. It’s imperative that professionals have a comprehensive knowledge of the system they’re using and are familiar with ways to secure it. Hence, while the benefits of AI to the healthcare industry are no doubt numerous, AI, according to HitConsultant, should assist, not replace professional doctors in the healthcare industry.
The original article can be found here.
There are various pros and cons of AI to the healthcare industry to arrive at a more comprehensive decision, which is also highlighted and promoted by AI World Society (AIWS) for developing ethical AI applications to help people achieve well-being and happiness, as well as solve important issues, such as SDGs.
by Editor | Sep 8, 2019 | News
Governor Michael Dukakis, and Mr. Vint Cerf, one of the fathers of the Internet, discussed about the Social Contract 2020.
Governor Michael Dukakis and the Michael Dukakis Institute for Leadership and Innovation founded the AI World Society Young Leaders to encourage people under 35 year old in the world to contribute in making the world safer and better with applied AI and Internet.
Candidates can be:
- Outstanding students, scholars of universities, excellent senior students of high school in the world.
- Outstanding people in the world who are willing to make the world better, safer with applied AI and Internet.
How to join: candidates send a letter, their bios, pictures to [email protected], leaders of Michael Dukakis Institute will review and feedback through email.
Works of AIWS Young Leaders: contribute ideas, actions for events, and activities through online or in person that will impact in the world with mission of AIWS Young Leaders. They also can attend and contribute to initiatives, solutions, and projects of Michael Dukakis Institute.
Members can work, connect through Internet, online or in person.
Their contribution will be recognized by Michael Dukakis Institute for Leadership and Innovation.
by Editor | Sep 1, 2019 | News
From 26 to 30 August 2019, Geneva, Switzerland hosts the annual week-long plenary meeting of the Arms Trade Treaty, concluding the Latvian ATT presidency.
The plenary began with a discussion among high-ranking guests on gender issues, in which Latvian ex-president, Vaira Vīķe Freiberga, participated and spoke at. Representatives from the governments of the States Parties and the non-governmental sector also exchange views on a more effective and broader fulfilment of the Arms Trade Treaty and the duty of the States Parties to annually report on its implementation.
Latvia held the ATT presidency since 24 August 2018, the priority theme of the presidency term being gender-based violence in arms trade.
Latvia was the first Baltic state to assume presidency of the ATT. The presidency promoted the international visibility of Latvia in the matters of international security policy and brought Latvia’s contribution to controlling the export of conventional arm.
The Michael Dukakis Institute honored President Vaira Vike-Freiberga as a Distinguished Innovation Leader in 2018.
by Editor | Sep 1, 2019 | News
The Rīga Conference has become a unique venue for constructive dialogue on international security issues between leading global decision makers. The event is organized jointly by the Latvian Transatlantic Organisation (LATO), the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Latvia, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Latvia. We facilitate debates at various levels, engaging high-level politicians, diplomats, experts, as well as local and international media. By attracting key international players and tackling the most pressing issues that our societies currently face, The Rīga Conference demonstrate its commitment to think and work in a global context.
Over the course of the last decade years, The Rīga Conference has built its name and reputation across the region. Highlights have included having the Prime Ministers of Latvia, Poland, Estonia, Lithuania, and Finland together in the same room to discuss economic growth in a time of austerity; the presentation by Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili in 2008 and the address by President of the United States George W. Bush in 2006.
At this year’s conference, amongst other things, The Riga Conference will consider EU role in rise of geoeconomics, security challenges in the information age and hybrid warfare, transatlantic relationship as a critical axis of global stability, relations between Russia and the West as well as prospects of Eastern Partnership countries, and the PLENARY SESSION: POLITICAL POWER IN THE DIGITAL AGE. The Riga Conference 2019 will take place on Oct 11 and 12 at National Library of Latvia.
The Founder of the Riga Conference is the former President of Latvia, Vaira Vike-Freiberga.
by Editor | Sep 1, 2019 | News
Governor Michael Dukakis, Co-founder and Chairman of the Boston Global Forum, will lead a discussion for a framework for peace and security in the 21st century at Consulate General of Greece in Boston. Professors of Harvard, MIT, and the US Naval World College will attend and discuss. The world needs a framework to keep peace and security in the 21st century.
Today, there are many challenges and threats to peace in the world: extreme nationalism, new dictatorships, totalitarianism, fake news, cyberattacks, global power’s power projection on their smaller neighbours, illegal threatening of others’ sovereignty, violations of international laws, using centralised power and massive population of to create unfair competition in the economy, arm races, etc.
Which roles can the US, the EU, and other democratic countries play against non-democratic powers which utilise authoritarianism and nationalism?
The roundtable will take place at 5:30 pm, Sept 9, 2019, the World Reconciliation Day, at Greece Consulate General in Boston, 86 Beacon street, Boston, MA 02108. The Greek Consul General in Boston, Stratos Efthymion, will co-host this roundtable.
by Editor | Sep 1, 2019 | News
Dr. Michel SERVOZ is the Special Adviser to the President of European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, for Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, and the Future of Labour, joins the Social Contract 2020 Team and discusses about:
- Data protection and the potential to come to some kind of agreement/understanding on an international data rule book: the issue of data use is also very important from a European perspective to enable access to AI by small companies;
- Tax: the light of the recently announced French digital tax (which will be appear in several other EU countries soon), and also in the light of announcements by some Presidential hopefuls in the US.
- Digital money: big differences across countries: China is ahead of everyone else, while Europe is very conservative on the issue. Again, the world need for a rule book to set some international standards (as we have for banking, i.e Basel III);
- Algorithms as law: the issue is to move from general principles on the use of AI to concrete rules on what to do and not do; general principles have been adopted by different countries and corporations, but they are not very concrete and do not foresee means of redress; how do we establish enforceable principles without creating a bureaucratic burden for investors and researchers?
- Dictatorship: issues concerning the competitive position of the big players: all the big players are US and China based, enjoying quasi-monopoly positions in some sectors, European companies are very small in this field, and emerging economies are largely absent from AI; the later will create dangerous imbalances, of will increase seriously some existing imbalances. How can we make sure that AI benefit to the economic development of all countries?
