The Dialogue included distinguished leaders and scholars: the Honorable Governor Michael Dukakis of Massachusetts, Co-founder and Chairman of the Boston Global Forum (BGF); MIT Professors Nazli Choucri and Alex “Sandy” Pentland; Harvard Professors Thomas Patterson, Dr. David Silbersweig, Martha Minow, and Ruth L. Okediji; Executive Director of the Legal Design Lab and lecturer at Stanford Law School Margaret Hagan; Caroline Irma Maria Nevejan, Chief Science Officer with the City of Amsterdam; Vint Cerf, known as “Father of the Internet’; and Zlatko Lagumdžija, former Prime Minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Moderators: Governor Michael Dukakis and Nguyen Anh Tuan.
Emerging Consensus
The emergence of OpenAI’s ChatGPT and similar AI-enabled applications (the Social Contract for the AI Age considered as AI Assistants) pose both potential benefits and risks for humanity and a sustainable democratic global order. In general, AI is the new frontier in international relations that calls for a new post-nuclear global order. While AI in itself is not new, we are indeed at the dawn of a new AI era where much is unknown about the many shapes and directions that Natural Language Processing and General Purpose Technology, two mainstays of AI and AI-enabled applications, may take us in the near future. For this reason, and especially due to the relative lack of public knowledge and transparency of rapid developments in the field, it is increasingly more critical for global communities such as ours to “think on our feet” as to how best AI can be optimized for benefiting the human condition and for preventing or mitigating potential harm, whether intentional or not, through regulation toward common good. AI platforms and AI-enabled media have input data that far surpass the intelligence and agility of its human creators, i.e., the most sophisticated and technologically savvy individual humans who orchestrated the design of AI, with an enormous scope for unfathomable societal impact in real time. The situation requires that like-minded nation states and multidisciplinary scientific communities as well as technology and other industries leaders in the private sector collaborate for developing and implementing a robust Shared Framework for AI Governance as well as a Pact for Strategic Deterrence of Misuse of AI by rogue states and other bad actors (see here for a recent article on AI and the future of geopolitics in Foreign Affairs by industry leader and former CEO of Google, Inc. Eric Schmidt). The discussion centered on AI governance and alternative approaches to regulate the field.
Major Approaches Discussed
Develop and implement a cascading menu of regulatory options, analogous to human-AI interface in smart cars; i.e., from self-driving capable mode to minimally AI-assisted human driver mode, and anywhere in-between
Audit trails and transparent fixes to unintended behavior or misuse of AI
Attention to corporate responsibility in regulatory framework, with AI entrepreneurs thought of as essential players, who respond to incentives and are at risk to common perversions in poorly regulated markets, who could also be trusted partners when engaged through shared objectives, shared values, and reasonable regulatory standards that promote growth and innovation
Intelligent safeguards in AI design, as in circuit breakers for electricity, for preventing and interrupting rogue (adverse) events and misuse
Invest in the conscious cultivation of human solidarity, empathy, and compassion, the fundamental human values that are the very essence of a social contract
Challenge our assumptions and actions as to regulate “What” “Why” “How” etc.
This previous point could be addressed from a systems perspective, i.e., consider AI as a component of many other intersecting and interrelated components of the human universe (global society), and apply systems thinking starting from “What” “How” and so on for a dynamic, comprehensive regulatory framework
Test input assumptions and data when designing algorithms for preventing bias and other errors in the design of AI
Adopt “Do not implement until all is known about the option” as a standard practice, “all” meaning certain crucial aspects such as data privacy, copyright issues, etc. (an example from The Netherlands)
Engage domain experts and/or interest groups organized as a participatory community in the design phase of an AI application, e.g., physicians and the American Medical Association co-creating a clinically/health-related AI product with team/s of AI technology design experts
Keep the Four Pillars (US, Japan, European Alliance, India) of Liberal Democracy when developing regulation
Align with the Global Alliance for Digital Governance
Consider Businesses, Nations, Geopolitical Regions, etc. as distinct stakeholder groups when developing regulations, as well as the “What” “How” “Why” “When” aspects of a framework
Consider the GDPR, the IEEE standards, the Social Contract for the AI Age etc. as existing models, with an awareness that context matters and will require adoption of best practices with modifications necessary to suit a different local context
Overall, a code of conduct, a playbook that governs responsible use of AI for the common good, is imperative, here and now!
Nguyen Anh Tuan, Co-moderator of the BGF High-level Dialogue on ChatGPT and AI Assistants
On February 28th, 2023, the BGF High-level Dialogue on Regulation Framework for AI Assistants and ChatGPT took place online. The event was chaired by Governor Michael Dukakis, Chair of BGF, and Nguyen Anh Tuan, CEO of BGF, who co-moderated.
The keynote speaker was Vint Cert, a renowned computer scientist and one of the fathers of the Internet.
The keynote speech by Vint Cerf addresses the arrival of large-scale language models such as GPT-3 and the risks associated with the use of machine learning. Cerf notes that machine learning is a narrower kind of intelligence that uses multi-layer neural networks, which were previously discounted in the 1960s as inadequate. However, over the last decade or so, they have become extremely powerful in their functionality. Cerf points out that there are risks associated with the use of machine learning, and these risks can be categorized similarly to the risks associated with self-driving cars. Cerf suggests that low-risk applications of machine learning include making suggestions to users, while high-risk applications include medical diagnosis and automated surgery. Cerf notes that one of the challenges associated with machine learning is the inability to predict or anticipate how the system might go off the rails.
Distinguished scholars and experts in the field of AI and law, including MIT professors Alex Pentland, Nazli Choucri, Harvard professors Martha Minow, former Dean of Harvard Law School, Ruth L. Okediji, director of Berkman Center, Thomas Patterson, David Silbersweig, and Stanford scholar Margaret Hagan, Brandeis scholar Shyamal Sharma, Caroline Irma Maria Nevejan, Chief Science Officer with the City of Amsterdam, professor Zlatko Lagumdzija, former Prime Minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Professor Francesco Lapenta in Rome, were in attendance.
This event was significant and pioneering as it discussed regulations for ChatGPT and AI Assistants as the Social Contract for the AI Age recommended as a center of Power in the AI Age.
Vint Cerf delivers the keynote speech at the BGF High-Level Dialogue on February 28, 2023
AIWS City has planned to contribute new values in AIWS – the Age of Global Enlightenment to several US national parks, including Grand Canyon, Zion, Capitol Reef, Yellowstone, and Acadia, an important link between the aspects of nature, respect for nature, and AI World Society (AIWS) – the Age of Global Enlightenment.
The natural world has always been a source of inspiration for human innovation, and as we enter a new era of technological advancement, it is increasingly important that we continue to draw upon the lessons and wisdom of nature in our pursuit of progress.
Respect for nature and the need to preserve the environment, create new social, cultural initiatives and stories between these parks and the AI of Global Enlightenment are fundamental to the success of this project. By leveraging the power of AI, blockchain, and other cutting-edge technologies to monitor and protect the natural environment, AIWS City is demonstrating a commitment to sustainability and responsible stewardship.
At the same time, the project is also designed to promote education and enlightenment. By using interactive exhibits and immersive experiences, visitors to these national parks will gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of the natural world, and will be inspired to take actions to protect it, create new ideas, initiatives for the Age of Global Enlightenment.
In this way, the project by AIWS City represents an important link between the superpowers of nature, respect for nature, and the AI World Society (AIWS) – the Age of Global Enlightenment. By combining these forces, we can create a better world for ourselves and future generations.
Mr. Nguyen Anh Tuan, CEO of Boston Global Forum, the editor of the book “Remaking the World – Toward an Age of Global Enlightenment”, and Ramu Damodaran, Co-chair of the United Nations Centennial Initiative, spoke at the launch of the book “AI in the Age of Global Enlightenment” on Feb. 25, 2023 in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
Here is Mr. Ramu Damodaran’s speech:
“As the United Nations marked its seventy fifth anniversary in 2020, it sought to repair and restore a world devastated over the past few months by the COVID-19 pandemic. At the Boston Global Forum, eyes were on another horizon, 2045, when the world organization would mark its centennial, and the opportunity that would give to go beyond the restoration and repair circumstances had made necessary 25 years earlier, to go beyond those to a “remaking” of the world, a remaking that would celebrate a new age of Global Enlightenment. In the words of Boston Global Forum Chief Executive Officer, Nguyen Tuan Anh, that remaking would “require concerted action by governments, individuals, organizations and firms; each must be a source of innovation.”
I am glad that Tuan mentioned individuals particularly since we all to often tend to blend or subsume them into entities of which they are a part through birth, education and profession. The United Nations Charter celebrates the dignity and worth of the human person, a worth we see manifest each day in the extraordinary range of creativity that the minds and hearts of women and men the world over yield.
Michelle Nguyen is one such human person. She has drawn from the scholarship in the Boston Global Forum’s publication on Global Enlightenment the seeds of a story her mind has planted, allowed to take root, and flower. A story I won’t go into detail, for fear of giving its plot away, but a story that centers around a scientist who creates an Artificial Intelligence assistant and a robot with the capability, in her words, to “self learn, feel and act like a human while yearning to experience human happiness.”
What a moving phrase. That to feel and act as a human —as each one of us do—is not an assurance that we will experience the happiness that should come with the sheer exhilaration of being human. There are many reasons for this lack of assurance but at least one is each one of us being overwhelmed by the everyday tasks for survival which inhibit our capacity, as a species, to truly flourish.
The creation of an Artificial Intelligence World Society, governed by an Artificial Intelligence Social Contract, for both of which the Boston Global Forum has made so compelling a case, can help fulfill many of these tasks, liberating our time, our minds and our hearts to flourish and be humanly happy. Michelle references that possibility with gentleness and care in her book, personifying the many pitfalls of AI, of which most of us are aware, with its immense potential to enhance good, vindicating the idea that what human beings create, they can transform.
In the words of Governor Michael Dukakis, Chairman of the Boston Global Forum “there are too many judgments you have to make in this world that involve values, ethics and morality.” These are judgments for humans to make, and they can be best made when humans are happy and fulfilled. Michelle’s thoughtful, but easy, novel shows us a gentle way.”
Mr. Nguyen Anh Tuan, CEO of the Boston Global Forum, will speak at the International Scientific Conference Preventing and Handling Online Fake News – Theory and Practice, chaired by Vietnam Ministry of Public Security’s Theorical Council, March 2, 2023, in Vietnam.
He will present the topic Ethics Code of Conduct for Cyber Peace and Security and Combating Disinformation in the Age of Global Enlightenment.
Disinformation and misinformation are major challenges facing society today, and solving them is essential to building a trusted information society based on accurate and reliable information. Disinformation and misinformation can have serious consequences, including spreading false ideas, undermining public trust in institutions and experts, and even influencing elections and other important decisions.
AIWS – the Age of Global Enlightenment, is a vision for a future in which humanity uses science and technology to create a better world for all. In this vision, disinformation and misinformation are seen as serious obstacles to progress that need to be addressed.
Solving these issues will require a multi-disciplinary approach that brings together experts from the fields of technology, media, education, and policy. This will involve developing better algorithms and tools for detecting and removing false information, educating people about how to identify credible sources and recognize false information, and strengthening institutions that promote accurate and reliable information.
Ultimately, the goal of combating disinformation and misinformation is to build a society that is based on truth, trust, and mutual understanding. By working together to solve these issues, we can create a future that is more enlightened, more connected, and more just for all people.
Combating disinformation and misinformation is a complex issue that requires a multi-pronged approach. Here are 7 solutions that can help address the problem:
Media literacy education: educate and use the Ethics Code of Conduct for Cyber Peace and Security, contributed by Boston Global Forum 2015
Fact-checking
AIWS-tech solutions
Collaboration between governments, media companies, and tech firms
Transparency in political advertising
Regulation
Support for independent journalism
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon recognizes the Global Cyber Security Day and Ethic Code of Conduct for Cyber Peace and Security
