Key Conclusions of the Final Report from the Club de Madrid Policy Lab “Fundamental Rights in AI & Digital Societies: Towards an International Accord”

by Editor | Nov 7, 2021 | News

• There is no doubt that digital technologies, and AI, in particular, have, for better or for worse, generated a revolution for fundamental rights. Building an international agreement on digital governance has complexities and the global policy and geopolitical environment plays a key role in facilitating or limiting the construction of this agreement.
• Common democratic values such as respect and promotion of human rights, and the rule of law are crucial to underpinning digital policy as an essential starting point to move towards that agreement.
• Challenges such as AI and data governance that domestic frameworks cannot address alone are crucial points on which we must focus. From there, we can start with small but important steps to build a culture of agreement on digital issues – _with a premium on the Transatlantic space, that has the advantage of shared values.
• In a field where so much is yet to come, we are convinced that international cooperation for Artificial Intelligence and digital technologies is an opportunity to write the rules together. The Framework for AI International Accord, a part of the e-book “Remaking the World – Toward an Age of Global Enlightenment”, presented at this Policy Lab is a significant start for this goal.
• We need some internationally agreed fundamental rules or norms to guide the development of technologies; we cannot anticipate to protect rights we do not fully comprehend; and the efforts that already exist are essential to continue working on the objective that gathered us these three days. It will be a challenging process, because of the variety of values and approaches that are emerging in different parts of the world, but there is common ground to be found. And to that end, making principles operational and integrating a variety of stakeholders representing countries and communities in all their diversity, including inter-generational differences is needed.
• Many of the issues discussed intersect with the crucial work the UN is both doing and planning to do, under the leadership of Secretary-General Guterres, to maintain international peace and security, and support the achievement of the SDGs. AI, cybersecurity, diplomacy, and development – _not least social development – _all relate to defense and promotion of fundamental rights in the digital sphere. It is our aim that our recommendations, the United Nations Centennial Initiative, and the book “Remaking the World – Toward an Age of Global Enlightenment” support ‘Our Common Agenda’ and, particularly, the Global Digital Compact proposal.
• There is no lack of goodwill and effort to build an AI framework on which different actors – governments, local governments, and non-government actors can agree. The UNESCO Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence is a promising step in the right direction.
• We have also established a Global Alliance for Digital Governance that includes relevant stakeholders -governments, private sector, academia, civil society, international organizations- to reduce the digital field’s development gaps and bring communities together, thus contributing to the United Nations Centennial Initiative.
• We agreed on the need for a new social contract that takes digital transformation into account. To build a social contract suited for the digital age, going beyond traditional allies and reach out to those who think differently is crucial. The Social Contract for the AI Age is a recognized tool and will be fundamental for the Age of Global Enlightenment.
• Throughout this process of reflection, trust is essential and to obtain that we would need to build on security, privacy, reliability and fairness as crucial pillars that will promote digital technologies as a tool to serve inclusive societies.
• Protecting access to information, education and digital literacy and finding a balance between freedom of speech and the imperative to have a common truth will allow progress on drafting common rules on AI. In this regard, the AIWS City will be a practical model for addressing this issue.
• It is tough to craft legislation and rules for technologies that are not yet being used, so we need a risk-based approach to digital governance. In the case of AI, this approach will help to elaborate some of the requirements for its design, development and application phases.
• Ex ante and ex-post regulation are not incompatible. We need both to better govern digital. Ex ante regulation will allow institutions to provide guardrails for rights, including data rights, in the deployment of AI systems. Ex post regulation will allow AI systems to be audited. In this regard, we agreed accountability is a fundamental consideration in the deployment of AI technologies. We need to be able to explain how AI systems reach the decisions they reach and will allow us to work to stop the dynamics of discrimination, exclusion and inequalities that are being replicated and amplified by AI technologies. The Global Alliance for Digital Governance can be a significant movement for this mission.
• The Community Innovation Economy concept was introduced during the Policy Lab as a tool that empowers citizens to create value for themselves, for others, and for society through the application of AI, digital, block chain, and data science technologies. It is a sharing ecosystem that rewards both the creators and users of these technologies, as well as an ecosystem that encourages everyone to innovate.
• Despite the existing gaps in the regulation of digital technologies and their use, they have been fundamental tools of resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic and we must not forget their benefits.
• Finally, we would like to mention that many of the discussions of the six Plenaries highlighted the significant contributions of the e-book, “Remaking the World – Toward an Age of Global Enlightenment”, published by the UN Centennial Initiative and the Boston Global Forum.

AIWS City at the Policy Dialog “Rethinking Democracy”

by Editor | Oct 31, 2021 | News

Club de Madrid’s members contributed to Remaking the World – Toward an Age of Global Enlightenment, making them distinguished leaders of Global Enlightenment Community in AIWS City.

We introduced some significant ideas of speakers at the Policy Dialog “Rethinking Democracy” organized by Club de Madrid in partnership with Boston Global Forum on October 27-29, 2021.

Regarding the continued support of international financial institutions towards increasingly autocratic states such as Nicaragua, Laura Chinchilla, Vice President of Club de Madrid and former President of Costa Rica stated: “International Financial Institutions must stop focusing only on the macro- economic and start looking at human rights”.

The former President of Costa Rica warned that international and regional organisations must act sooner when faced with a crisis of democracy. “If we operate under the logic that everything is fine, until everything is wrong, we end up with situations such as that of Nicaragua”, Chinchilla added.

Zsuzsanna Szelényi, Member of the Hungarian Parliament (2014-2018), explained the recent concerted effort by the Hungarian opposition to defeat Viktor Orban in the upcoming national election. Parties were able to come together and elect a single candidate by leveraging technology and digital activism. “Everything was online, as the public media was captured by the government. We now have the result, a candidate, who is a charismatic newcomer”, Szelényi said.

As a result of this experience, Szelényi concludes that “technology can deeply and strongly support democratic innovation”, but “it wouldn’t have worked without people first, coming out to the streets, and activists organising from behind”.

Policy Dialog 2021 raise about the Social Contract for the AI Age

by Editor | Oct 31, 2021 | News

Speaking at Club de Madrid’s Policy Dialog “Rethinking Democracy” on October 27, 2021, Professor Thomas Patterson, Harvard University, co-founder of the Boston Global Forum, Distinguished Contributor of Remaking the World – Toward an Age of Global Enlightenment, highlighted the Social Contract for the AI Age and concepts in the book as fundamentals for democracy in the digital era.

Aleksander Kwasniewski, former President of Poland, claimed that “after the collapse of the USSR, we thought that ‘the End of History’ was here but China offers a real alternative that for many is more appealing than democracy. In China we have a real competitor”.

In this line, Derek Mitchell, President of the National Democratic Institute, urged that “We need to understand how China works at home and abroad”. At the same time, he stated that the decline in the quality of democracy “is a practical challenge, not a theoretical one. We need to ensure democracy delivers”. 

Democracy is no longer a matter of voting every 4 years and then exercising a mandate until the next election. “We need new schemes of representation, a more liquid democracy”, said Former PM of Belgium Yves Leterme.

Former PM of the Netherlands Jan Peter Balkenende, emphasised democratic culture: “Democracy is not the majority winning and dominating, but rather the majority taking care of the minority”.

Former Vice President of Costa Rica Casas-Zamora also encouraged democratic innovation in terms of representation: “The basic setups of democracy have been around for 100 years. It is time to rethink it. It is time to be bold, embrace innovation and reform. We need to come up with new institutions and new types of deliberation”. 

Speakers demanded of the upcoming Democracy Summit convened by U.S. President, Joe Biden, to make a categorical defence of democracy. Activists expressed the need for democracies to become more proactive in defending such systems internally and externally.

UNESCO Media and Information Literacy Week Roundtable “Global Enlightenment Education solve misinformation and disinformation”

by Editor | Oct 31, 2021 | News

On October 28, 2021, to promote and support UNESCO Media and Information Literacy Week, Boston Global Forum organized the Roundtable “Global Enlightenment Education solve misinformation and disinformation”. Mr. Ramu Damodaran, the first Chief of United Nations Academic Impact and Co-Chair of the United Nations Centennial Initiative, was the moderator of the Roundtable.

Prime Minister Zlatko Lagumdzija, member of Club de Madrid, one of Coordinators of Global Alliance for Digital Governance raised:

In last two years, Boston Global Forum and Club de Madrid, and UN Academic Impact as well, collaborated especially in the context of putting together the Social Contract for the AI Age, putting efforts together as an alliance of like-minded people and entities to do something that will cause to get artificial intelligence, an issue of artificial intelligence, closer to what the purpose of every technology is supposed to be, which is, basically speaking, for progress and prosperity of the human being.

In that context, Boston Global Forum participated a lot in Club de Madrid Policy Dialogue that was dealing with an issue of we think in major topics of democracy.

To solve disinformation and misinformation practically, we build the new information ecosystem that has to be built as a result of the technological developments and prospects of democracy that we want to build.

Professor David Silbersweig, Harvard University, Board Member of Global Enlightenment Education Program, introduced the Global Enlightenment Education Program as an important part of AI World Society and the United Nations Centennial Initiative, and said:

The increased powers that technology gives it and the increased powers of the nation states and bad actors are small groups and the vulnerability of the population to mass manipulation on a scale and with an acceleration that is enabled by the technology so the solutions need to be technologically enabled and need to be informed by our latest understanding.