by Admin | Aug 18, 2019 | AI-Government
Shaping the future of AI will require new regulation of technology. Some possible directions include restrictions on the collection and use of data, requiring the use of machine learning tools and frameworks that are fair by design, and mandating processes that promote accountability by allowing people to contest algorithmic decisions.
However, the natural question that arises is: how will these new policies and regulations be enforced? Without a means for assessing whether systems are in compliance, regulators are powerless to hold the designers and operators of those systems accountable.
Algorithm auditing is one potential answer to this question. Using algorithm auditing techniques, it is possible to scientifically evaluate whether a black-box system exhibits a range of negative behaviors, such as discrimination against protected classes or predatory pricing. Algorithm auditing enables academics, members of civil society, investigative journalists, and regulators to assess whether algorithmic systems are obeying policy proscriptions and best-practices.
Algorithm auditing methods have two desirable properties. First, systems can be audited without requiring access to proprietary source code and datasets. This avoids obvious concerns about revealing trade secrets or sensitive datasets to third-parties. Second, audits can be conducted in secret, making them suitable for voluntary and involuntary compliance testing.
As part of the Social Contract 2020 we should carefully consider the compliance and enforcement role that algorithm audits can play. One option is to mandate independent algorithm audits of all consequential AI systems, similar to how we currently mandate financial audits (and should mandate cybersecurity audits). A second option is not to mandate algorithm audits, but to instead legalize and legitimize their practice. This would at least permit consequential AI systems to be audited, rather than allowing system owners to shroud their technology in a haze of legal use restrictions.
Christo Wilson
Associate Professor
Khoury College of Computer Sciences
Northeastern University
Member of the Social Contract 2020 Team
Michael Dukakis Leadership Fellow
by Admin | Aug 18, 2019 | AI-Government, AI World Society Distinguished Lecture
A new analysis shows that the number of Chinese AI researchers has increased tenfold over the last decade, but the majority of them live outside the country.
Superpower dreams: China has put forth a concerted effort to grow into a leading AI powerhouse over the last few years.
Home-grown army: the authorship of papers accepted to NeurIPS, one of the most prestigious international AI conferences, and found a nearly tenfold increase in the number of authors who did their undergraduate studies in China over the last decade.
Brain drain: Despite the country’s success in cultivating domestic talent, however, it has struggled with retention.
Why it matters: Among the four major inputs into a country’s AI ecosystem—talent, data, capital, and hardware—the first has the greatest impact. The concentration of expertise determines whether practitioners will direct their energy more toward AI research or applications, for example.
A more fluid movement of scientists would benefit both the US and China to build up both countries’ AI ecosystems while making it easier to create much-needed global standards for AI ethics. In this effort, Michael Dukakis Institute for Leadership and Innovation (MDI) established the Artificial Intelligence World Society (AIWS) to collaborate with think tanks, universities, non-profits, firms, and other entities that share its commitment to the constructive and development of AI for helping everyone achieve well-being and happiness as well as ethical norms
by Admin | Jul 23, 2019 | News
(from left to right: Governor Michael Dukakis, President of Estonia Toomas Hendrik Ilves, and Professor Patrick Winston
at the AI World Society’s first meeting December 12, 2017.)
Patrick Winston, a beloved professor and computer scientist at MIT, died on July 19 at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. He was 76.
A professor at MIT for almost 50 years, Winston was the director of MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Laboratory from 1972 to 1997 before it merged with the Laboratory for Computer Science to become MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL).
A devoted teacher and cherished colleague, Winston led CSAIL’s Genesis Group, which focused on developing AI systems that have human-like intelligence, including the ability to tell, perceive, and comprehend stories. He believed that such work could help illuminate aspects of human intelligence that scientists don’t yet understand.
His Genesis project aimed to faithfully model computers after human intelligence in order to fully grasp the inner workings of our own motivations, rationality, and perception. Using MIT research scientist Boris Katz’s START natural language processing system and a vision system developed by former MIT PhD student Sajit Rao, Genesis can digest short, simple chunks of text, then spit out reports about how it interpreted connections between events.
Winston’s dedication to teaching earned him many accolades over the years, including the Baker Award, the Eta Kappa Nu Teaching Award, and the Graduate Student Council Teaching Award. He was also renowned for his accessible and informative lectures, and gave a hugely popular talk every year during the Independent Activities Period called “How to Speak.”
A past president of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), Winston also wrote and edited numerous books, including a seminal textbook on AI that’s still used in classrooms around the world. Outside of the lab he also co-founded Ascent Technology, which produces scheduling and workforce management applications for major airports.
As a pioneer researcher in Artificial Intelligence (AI), Professor Patrick Winston was also key figure to the AI World Society (AIWS), which has been established by Michael Dukakis Institute for Leadership and Innovation (MDI). He was an intellectual and active contributor to AIWS and MDI from the very first days, including AI World Society first meeting on December 12, 2017 at Harvard University Faculty Club.
Michael Dukakis Institute for Leadership and Innovation (MDI) and AI World Society (AIWS) express sincere condolences to professor Patrick Winston and his family. Professor Patrick Winston is always memorized as an inspirational AI expert in AI World Society for promoting ethical norms and practices in the development and use of AI.
by Admin | Aug 18, 2019 | News
“A Proposed Social Contract 2020, Regarding Rules and International Laws for AI and the Internet “ is a theme of the AI World Society (AIWS) Conference on September 23, 2019 at Harvard University Faculty Club, MA, USA. Professor Alex Sandy Pentland, Director of Connection Science from MIT, and co-founder of the Social Contract 2020, is the keynote speaker of the conference, Governor Michael Dukakis, Chairman of the Boston Global Forum, co-founder of the AI World Society and the Social Contract 2020 is the moderator of the conference. Professor Pentland will present concepts of the Social Contract 2020, a very important part of AI World Society.
Professor Alex ‘Sandy’ Pentland directs the MIT Connection Science and Human Dynamics labs and previously helped create and direct the MIT Media Lab and the Media Lab Asia in India. He is one of the most-cited computational scientists in the world, and Forbes recently declared him one of the “7 most powerful data scientists in the world” along with Google founders and the Chief Technical Officer of the United States. He is on the Board of the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data, co-led the World Economic Forum discussion in Davos that led to the EU privacy regulation GDPR, and was central in forging the transparency and accountability mechanisms in the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
by Admin | Jun 30, 2019 | Event Updates
The Boston Global Forum and the United Nations Academic Impact co-organized an AI World Society Distinguished Lecture on United Nations Charter Day, June 26, 2019. The AI World Society Distinguished Lecture was delivered by Dr. David A. Bray in the ECOSOC Chamber, United Nations Headquarters. On this special day, the AI World Society Distinguished Lecture is named as the United Nations Charter Day Lecture.
Theme:
Artificial Intelligence, the Internet and the Future of Data: Where Will We Be in 2045? will examine the impact of technology on the mission of the UN 100 years after its creation.
The event is broadcasted through UN WebTV:
http://webtv.un.org/search/united-nations-academic-impact-charter-day-lecture/6052648067001/?term=&lan=english
The Lecture start at 10:00 am with film about establish United Nations Charter on June 26, 1945 in San Francisco, followed by participants standing to read key messages of UN Charter.
Then, Mr. Nguyen Anh Tuan, CEO of the Boston Global Forum introduced the AI World Society Initiative and AI World Society Distinguished Lecture, and honored to name the AI World Society Distinguished Lecture as United Nations Academic Impact Charter Day Lecture on this special day.
Then, Dr. Bray, presented the Lecture with his vision about the world in 2045, 100 years of United Nations, and at the time that he will be 67 years old.
Moderator
Maher Nasser, Director, Outreach Division Department of Global Communications, United Nations.
Panelists:
- Mariko Gakiya, Shine Advisory Board Member-Sustainability and Health Initiative, Visiting Scientist-Environmental H, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
- Fabrizio Hochschild, United Nations Under Secretary-General and Special Adviser on the Preparations for the Commemoration of the Seventy-Fifth Anniversary of the United Nations
- Ajeet N. Mathur,
Professor in Strategy and International Business,
Business Policy and Economics Areas, IIM Ahmedabad
- Atefeh Riazi, United Nations Assistant Secretary-General and Chief Information Technology Officer
- David Silbersweig, Chairman of psychiatry at Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston, and
co-directs the center for the neurosciences;
Academic Dean, and Stanley Cobb Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Board Member of the Boston Global Forum, Member of AI World Society Standards and Practice Committee.
