Whether it’s at rescue and firefighting operations or deep-sea inspections, mobile robots finding their way around unknown situations with the help of artificial intelligence (AI) can effectively support people in carrying out activities in hazardous environments. The potential as well as the concrete benefits of AI in this field are illustrated in a current report from Plattform Lernende Systeme, Germany’s Platform for Artificial Intelligence, using two application scenarios.
In future, mobile self-learning robots can relieve people from dangerous or harmful activities. At the same time they can make operations in difficult-to-access terrain more economic or possible in the first place. The use of artificial intelligence comes with enormous opportunities for our society. Especially in disaster prevention, the decommissioning of nuclear power plants and in the maritime field there are a number of options for effectively supporting professionals with the help of artificial intelligence.
According to Michael Dukakis Institute for Leadership and Innovation (MDI), AI can be a force for helping people achieve well-being and happiness, unleash their potential, obtain greater freedom, relieve them of resource constraints and arbitrary/ inflexible rules and processes, and solve important issues, such as SDGs.
On June 26, 2019, the 74th anniversary of the United Nations Charter Day, Boston Global Forum (BGF) was pleased to collaborate with United Nations Academic Impact to co-organize the AI World Society Distinguished Lecture 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.
Mr. Nguyen Anh Tuan, CEO of the Boston Global Forum, presented the AI World Society Distinguished Lecture Plaque to Dr. David Bray, after the Lecture.
Dr. Bray is the Executive Director of the People-Centered Internet Coalition and a Senior Fellow of the Institute for Human-Machine Cognition, one of 24 American under 40 year- old that changed the world, Member of the AIWS Standards and Practice Committee.. He was a co-chair of the Summit on AI Governance, Big Data and Ethics, a special program of the AI World Government Conference two days earlier in Washington DC, of which the BGF was a part of the Strategic Alliance.
Dr. Bray’s talk consists of three main parts. In the first part, he raised several current issues which technology can help address, and suggested that the UN be an ideal place to start the conversation about them. An issue is that globalization has not benefited everyone and when it comes to the revolution involving AI automation, certain groups of people are not convinced enough to sign up. Another issue is that the technology also can incentivize wrong behaviors. The third issue is due to the fact that a significant number of people still do not have the same empathy toward their fellow human beings.
In the second part, Dr. Bray talked about ongoing tensions in both open and closed societies under ripple effects of technology. He mentioned global libertarianism, progressive localism, national protectionism, global neoliberalism, and national developmentalism as competing ideologies in open societies. In closed societies, tensions are due to taller “walled gardens”, increased censorship, and longing for a new world order.
In the third part, he proposed that technology can have impact on the following key questions: will tech continue to erode social cohesion? can we “act locally” and AIs “think globally” safely? will cognitive cold wars misuse the internet? will globalization’s “low tide” decimate rural areas”? and can tech balance national and ecological interests?
He concluded the talk with some actions the UN should consider. Firstly, we should demonstrate how people can have greater decision-rights regarding personal data. Second, we should use AI to make public health and health care in general more affordable. Last but not least, we should demonstrate how technology can positively reframe how we work as individuals and communities.
Dr. Bray’s talk was presented before a UN panel on Academic Impact. It offers a proposal on global developments not foreseen when the UN Charter was drafted but which, wisely used, could contribute to the realization of its purposes and principles.
If you would like to join the discussion online you can watch the event live at webtv.un.org.
Our speaker will be Dr. David A. Bray, whose talk 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.
Dr. Bray has served as Executive Director for the People-Centered Internet Coalition focused on providing support and expertise for community-based projects that measurably improve people’s lives using the internet. Business Insider named him one of the top “24 Americans Who Are Changing the World under 40″ and he was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum for 2016-2021, a Marshall Memorial Fellow and a Senior Fellow with the Institute for Human-Machine Cognition.
Dr. Bray’s talk will be followed by reflections of discussants and a larger conversation with the audience. The invited discussants include:
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
David Silbersweig, Stanley Cobb Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School
Mariko Gakiya, Director, Global Leadership for Health, Peace and Human Security, Boston Global Forum
Nam Pham, Department of Business Development and International Trade , State of Massachusetts
Atefeh Riazi, UN Assistant Secretary-General, Chief Information Technology Officer , United Nations Office of Information and Communications Technology
