On May 18 in Riga, Latvia, former President of Latvia Vaira Vike-Freiberga discussed with Mr. Nguyen Anh Tuan, CEO of BGF), the AIWS initiative and potential cooperation to host other AIWS events in Latvia.
In the meeting, Mr. Nguyen Anh Tuan proposed an idea towards Riga and Latvia’s development: by pioneering a new AI culture which combines traditional culture and AIWS culture in the era of AI World Society. With many traditions and achievements already existing, Latvia will play an important role in helping AI contribute to peace and security in the Baltic and Northern Europe. At the same time, Latvia can become one of the pioneers along with the MDI and BGF, calling for an AI Peace Treaty.
The AIWS initiative, which the AI Peace Treaty is a part of, was created by The Michael Dukakis Institute for Leadership and Innovation (MDI), working in concert with BGF. As an offshoot of BGF, MDI was born in 2015 with the mission of generating ideas, creating solutions, and deploying initiatives to solve global issues, especially focusing on Cybersecurity and Artificial Intelligence.
World Leadership Alliance – Club de Madrid Members Vaira Vike-Freiberga, Kim Campbell, Jean Chrétien and Jorge Quiroga led the discussion in the thought-provoking Next Generation Democracy (NGD) America roundtable in San Francisco.
NGD is a program led by the Club de Madrid to facilitate discussion on and promote democracy worldwide. The aim of the NGD America meeting was to break the silos between political leaders and academic experts and the world of technology entrepreneurs and to start a direct and sincere dialogue among these spheres. “The tech world is very good at listening to itself but now we want to listen to others,” Newco’s CEO John Battelle said.
How can corporations and tech industries integrate democracy into their business model? BGF and MDI have been working closely with the Club de Madrid in developing AIWS and the 7-layer model to build Next Generation Democracy.
At a technology trade show in Germany, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who received World Leader in Cybersecurity honored by the Boston Global Forum, informed the audience that Japan is not scared of AI and that the AI sector could provide immense benefits for Japan.
“Japan has no fear of AI. Machines will snatch away jobs? Such worries are not known to Japan. Japan aims to be the very first to prove that growth is possible through innovation, even when a population declines,” the Prime Minister said. Japan is one of the world leaders in robotics, with companies like Fujitsu already developing a deep learning supercomputer for the Japanese research institute RIKEN.
Elsewhere around the world, AI may still remain a relatively unknown entity. People aren’t sure whether to embrace it or be afraid of the new technology. However, international governments are leaning towards the former. With an aim to improve the quality of life for all humanity, the Boston Global Forum and the Michael Dukakis Institute developed the AIWS 7-layer model to build a new AI-based politics. While AI per se cannot replace the functions of world leadership, our sixth layer will prove invaluable in providing assistance for human leaders.
DeepMind, a UK company owned by Alphabet, discovered that an AI program trained to navigate through a virtual maze has developed an architecture that resembles the neural “GPS system” found inside a brain, helping the AI find its way around the maze with unprecedented skill.
Neural networks can be useful for many things, but until now they have not proved especially suitable for navigation. Researchers at DeepMind set out to train an artificial neural network to mimic path integration and found that it developed something similar to the “grid cells” found in a biological brain. The research suggests that grid cells play a fundamental role in how animals – including humans – find their way around the world. This discovery has significant practical benefits, like helping robots navigate through unfamiliar buildings more easily.
Although AI research may reveal new thing about the brain that remain mysterious, this idea should be treated with some caution, since there is much we do not know about how the brain works, and since the functioning of artificial neural networks is also often hard to explain. AIWS was established to encourage the application of AI in all aspects of society. We are working closely with policymakers, business leaders, and technologists on the safety and ethical issues surrounding AI, including navigation of AI in neuroscience.
Last week, the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence – a national commission to guide America’s artificial intelligence investments – was introduced by a bipartisan pair of senators as a way to stay ahead of Chinese AI.
The National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligencewill have 15 members appointed by Congress and executive branch leaders from the fields of defense, commerce, science and intelligence. This commission will complete a yearly report looking at AI through the lens of national security, economic security, public-private partnerships and investment, and provide recommendations on growing AI industry within the U.S.
“The commission proposed in this bill will provide guidance on how we cultivate AI to help ensure we stay ahead of countries like China in this space, while also building guardrails to make certain the U.S. government responsibly uses AI,” Catherine Cortez Masto, a member of the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, said.
AIWS considers all possible applications of AI and robotics and aims to make the world better, safer with AI. On April 25, BGF announced the Ethical Framework for AIWS. The framework is a 7-layer model, with the fourth layer focusing on laws and legislation. The goal of this layer is to guide leaders in these endeavors so that their work is effective and timely.
At Google’s annual I/O conference in Mountain View, California on May 7, CEO Sundar Pichai introduced some new features to make technology increasingly accessible, including “Pretty Please” and “Google Duplex” for Google Assistant, “Do Not Disturb” and “Dashboard” for Android P, “Style Match” for Google Lens, and “Smart Compose” for Gmail. With the exception of “Google Duplex”, other features will be available this year. The company also hopes the extra convenience will make users more willing to share more personal data when they’re, say, asking Google to please tell a story.
While technology can be a positive force, there are very real and important questions being raised about the impact of these advances and the role they’ll play in our lives. Therefore, we need to have a set of standards and norms to advance the peaceful development of AI, which is the reason AIWS has established the Ethical Frameworks for AI.
Following claims that the U.S is ahead of other nations in AI, the White House announced the Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence convened under the National Science and Technology Council on May 10, 2018.
The Select Committee signals the Trump administration’s commitment to using AI to promote technological as well as social development. The administration has already taken major steps to invest in such research and to prepare for the technology’s impact on the economy. Since 2015, it has increased R&D funding for AI and autonomous systems and updated the Federal Automated Vehicles Policy. President Trump also suggested reviving industries that have already been overhauled by automation. At the summit unveiling the Select Committee, he signed a memorandum prioritizing science and technology education.
Michael Kratsios, Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief Technology Officer, added that the government itself is investing in AI. He pointed out a pilot program at the General Services Administration designed to reduce the need for federal auditors and noted that the National Institute of Health is looking at how machine learning can improve cancer detection and treatment. In addition, the Pentagon is in the process of setting up an AI center of excellence, which would house and organize the nearly 600 AI-related projects underway.
How can we prepare to take advantage of the next major technological boon that is AI? MDI and BGF has created a 7- layer model through AI World Society (AIWS) and will continue to cooperate with leaders and thinkers from MIT, Google, Harvard, Brown, World Leadership Alliance-Club de Madrid and more in our efforts to answer questions like this.
AI is increasingly essential to the security and prosperity of the world, and thus the country with the best AI definitely has several advantages economically, technologically and in terms of being a global super-power. The closer we get to mastering the creation of AI, the more we need standards for AI citizens.
The Boston Global Forum and the Michael Dukakis Institute have outlined some initial AIWS standards for AI citizens as follows:
Structure:
Their physical structure is humanoid. They have five senses: sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste.
They have a brain (an executive structure) which can apply logic as well as emotions.
They do not have internal organs.
They can move akin to a human. They can display emotions by smiling, crying, etc. or those such as anger, love, etc.
They must be honest, tolerant, loving, etc. They serve people, love people, and promote people’s best interests without hurting them.
Identity:
Each AI citizen has an identity differentiated by brain, physical shape, face, and an identification number.
Ethical standards:
Must meet requirements on ethics.
Cognitive functions are transparent to humans.
Each brain has the ability to be backed up and saved.
Beatriz Merino, Former Prime Minister of Peru, spoke at the BGF-G7 Summit Conference on April 25, 2018 at the Harvard University Faculty Club. She is a member of World Leadership Alliance-Club de Madrid (WLA-CdM).
WLA-CdM and the Boston Global Forum are partnered with the Michael Dukakis Institute to collaborate and develop the AIWS initiative. The President of WLA-CdM, Ms. Vaira Vike-Freiberga, serves as Co-chair of AIWS activities and conferences along with Governor Michael Dukakis.
