Francesco Lapenta

Francesco Lapenta

by | Apr 21, 2022 | Executive Board

Francesco Lapenta is the Founding Director of the John Cabot University Institute of Future and Innovation Studies. Currently, he is also a Mozilla-Ford Research Fellow. and the Technical Editor of the I.E.E.E. P7006 standard on Personal Data Artificial Intelligence Agents. His research focuses on emerging technologies, innovation, technologies’ governance, and standardization processes, ethics and impact assessment, and future scenario analysis.

He holds a Ph.D. In Sociology from the University of London, joint supervision Goldsmiths College and the London School of Economics. The Ph.D. was awarded a research grant by the E.S.R.C. (Economic and Social Research Council, UK). He has worked as Associate Professor in New Media Studies and Business Innovation at the Department of Communication, Business and Information Technologies at RUC University, Denmark (2009-2019), and Assistant Professor (2007-2009). Visiting Professor at New York University (2011-2012) and John Cabot University (2019).

He has organized many international conferences in the United States, Latin America, and Europe and participated in, and organized, countless academic and public events worldwide influencing the debate on emerging technologies. He has for years served on the executive board of the IVSA association. His latest works include the influential books: Research Methods in Service Innovation (F. Lapenta and F. Sørensen, Elgar 2017)), in which he explores the use of future-oriented scenario analysis for technology and innovation research. The 2016 book Data Ethics – The New Competitive Advantage by G. Hasselbalch and P. Tranberg (editor: F. Lapenta, Publishare) was one of the first books to describe the concept and establish privacy and the right to control one’s own data as key positive legal and business parameters. In 2011 he published Locative Media and the Digital Visualization of Space, Place, and Information, (Lapenta Ed. Taylor and Francis).

Prof. Lapenta has been teaching courses and seminars in Business and Information Technologies, Digital Rights and Media Ethics, New Media Studies, Advanced Media Based Research Methods, Ethics and Impact Assessment of Emerging Technologies. He has supervised countless student-industry collaborative projects. as part of his Master’s courses.

Marcel R. Zutter

Marcel R. Zutter

by | Oct 9, 2019 | Executive Board

MARCEL R. ZUTTER, born in 1961 in Basel/ Switzerland, has more than 30 years of international experience in financial services and technology. He is the Founder and Chairman of Parsumo Capital in Zurich, a quant asset management company leveraging investor behavior research. He is also an Angel Investor in the ICT and Fintech area and supports young entrepreneurs in Europe.

Mr. Zutter has worked in the institutional services business in Europe, Asia and the U.S in executive as well as board capacity. He also advised for many years some of the most sophisticated institutional investors across the globe on strategic, technology, asset and risk management topics. Already early in his career he developed a keen interest in understanding how technology can help change business models profoundly. It started at university with the development of a new approach to market research for innovative products and has never stopped to fascinate him.

Prior to founding Parsumo Capital in 2010 he was executive vice president/chief operating officer of State Street Global Markets in Boston and a Member of Executive Management. He had responsibility for strategy development, Fintech business, technology and operations. He led many of State Street’s initiatives to become a global market leader in new, alternative business platforms, thereby using technology, algorithms and processes in smart ways. He was also a key part of State Street Associates, an investment research think tank collaborating with academics from Harvard and MIT which combined unique information with big data processing/analysis

His previous role included responsibility for State Street’s Executive Operations and Strategy Group. During that time he lead key projects that helped to further advance State Street’s global expansion and positioning. Prior to this he was a managing director based in Zurich, Switzerland, responsible for the business build-up in Southern and Eastern Europe.

Prior to joining State Street in 1997, Mr. Zutter was a managing director at Credit Suisse Group. He held various management positions in asset management and securities brokerage over his 10 years there. He also worked as a research analyst for Baring Securities in Hong Kong and Singapore. Prior to his career in the financial services industry he was a consultant for Prognos AG in Basle, specializing in market analysis and strategy development for innovative products/new technologies, supporting major multinational organizations.

Upon his return to Switzerland in 2010 he founded Parsumo Capital and Axopa Partners, a global initiative to create a conflict-free trading platform for buy-side institutions only.

Marcel R. Zutter holds a Master’s Degree in Business and Economics from Basle University, Switzerland. He is a graduate of the International Bankers School in New York and the Swiss Banking School in Zurich and also completed the Advanced Management Program of Harvard Business School in Boston

He is married and the proud father of three children. He enjoys various sports, music and is curiously learning every day.

 

Brigadier General Kevin Ryan’s Speech at the Conference “Remaking Ukraine – Toward an Age of Global Enlightenment”

Brigadier General Kevin Ryan’s Speech at the Conference “Remaking Ukraine – Toward an Age of Global Enlightenment”

by | Jun 5, 2022 | AIWS City and Rebuilding Ukraine

First, I would like to thank the organizers and the people who put together this conference for a herculean effort and for taking the time to do this. I think that most of the people in this conference are familiar with the current state of the war in Ukraine, so I won’t dwell on talking about active battles. Instead, over the next five minutes I will get straight to the issues that you’ve mentioned and that the organizers asked me to focus on, namely thoughts about resolving the conflict in a way that upholds the international order and norms.

Today as we hold this conference, I believe we are seeing the final phase of the current fight which began on 24 February. I call it the current fight because the war with Ukraine, the war with the West, started as the ambassador pointed out in 2014, maybe even before, and it will continue on after this current fighting ends, so we cannot fool ourselves into thinking that the war is ending anytime soon, but the current fighting will end.

And when it does, how do we proceed? Russian president Putin and his military leaders have told the Russian people that they have successfully completed the first phase of their war and are now turning their forces to what they say has all along been their main goal, Eastern Ukraine. And whatever happens in the next few weeks in Eastern Ukraine will determine how and when the fighting ends. Both sides, Ukraine and Russia have achieved major victories, but both have also suffered major losses. Ukraine has held off the largest land forest in Europe with an army one-fourth the size of its adversary. Ukraine successfully repelled an attempt to take Kyiv and has stalled Russian advances in several other areas. It seems certain to me that Ukraine’s military has prevented the disappearance of the state of Ukraine, but Ukraine has lost large swaths of territory in the south and east and will likely not be able to kick Russia out of Ukrainian territory that it has already taken. Russia for its part has seized almost all of Ukraine’s southern land along the Black Sea, from Kherson to Donetsk regions, and they have about 80 percent of the Donetsk in Luhansk regions already, but Russia has clearly failed to get all that it wanted. It failed to take Kyiv or to depose the government.

For a variety of reasons including manpower and equipment losses, Russia is running out of forces to continue their war. Almost all the available ground in airborne forces are already committed to the war, so there are no new units available to replace losses. Ukraine on the other hand has an almost endless supply of materials coming to it from the West, so the clock is working against Russia. Perhaps the most damaging loss to Russia will be the loss of the deterrent power of its ground forces, since during the cold war Russia’s security has rested on two pillars: a mighty conventional ground force and a nuclear deterrent. After the cold war, the ground force fell into decay. Beginning in 2008, the Russian military began an ambitious reform program to restore the ground forces to their role as a co-equal pillar of Russian security. The war in Ukraine was supposed to be the re-launching of that new pillar of power, which would then have become the main tool for threatening neighboring states or NATO. But instead, the ground forces have been shown to be a weak tool. The result is that going forward, Russia will rely more heavily on its nuclear deterrent to coerce NATO or European neighbors and to ensure its security against external threats.

So given a war that ends with ambiguous successes and failures on both sides, along with a weakened but still belligerent Russia, we must strive for a resolution of the conflict which does not leave either side unsure of its own security. The US and the West must ensure that Ukraine is as secure and whole as possible, maintaining the end goal of a reunited Ukraine. The US and the West though must also engage Russia to prevent an increased reliance on nuclear weapons in Europe, a situation which could take us back to the 1980s, with medium-range nuclear missiles able to strike all European capitals in under 10 minutes.

So I have five steps to take to begin this process. The first is to make clear to Russia that the use of nuclear weapons will result in, using Putin’s own words when he launched this invasion, consequences greater than any you have faced in history. This is a clear red line stated by the United States, another nuclear power. The second step is to agree to a ceasefire as soon as possible all across the entire territory of Ukraine. The third step is to begin negotiations between Ukraine and Russia and between the United States, NATO, and Russia. The fourth is to remove sanctions on Russia only as Russia itself takes concrete steps to meet the Western and Ukrainian demands. And finally, to begin Western investment in Ukraine’s rebuilding. Many of these steps have been reiterated in the documents that Tuan passed to us last night. Thank you.

EY Global Tax Innovation Leader Jeff Saviano’s Speech at the Conference “Remaking Ukraine – Toward an Age of Global Enlightenment”

EY Global Tax Innovation Leader Jeff Saviano’s Speech at the Conference “Remaking Ukraine – Toward an Age of Global Enlightenment”

by | Jun 5, 2022 | AIWS City and Rebuilding Ukraine, Global Alliance for Digital Governance, News

Thank you very much. Thank you, professor Patterson and Tuan, professor Zaneta. What an honor to be included today. I know that we are running a bit late on times. I will be brief. I really appreciate the opportunity to be here today for such an important event. My family spent five weeks in Ukraine 13 years ago at the beginning of the war. That’s actually that same week we entered the country on an adoption mission as a family of four, and we left a family of five, so this is very very personal for me. My daughter Natasha is from Maryinka just outside of Donetsk, and we have had such a tremendous conflict for a long period of time. So when Tuan asked me to come today and to talk about the role of innovative technology, and we’ve had some discussions today, seeing department from MIT discussed the role that technology can play. I’m a tax lawyer by training, so I’m going to speak in a few comments about tax policy at the end but there are three points that I want to raise about innovative technology, and how the role that technology can play in the rebuilding of Ukraine.

First, we’ve talked a bit today about refugees and the importance of supporting refugees in Ukraine, and we’ve found that there are tremendous technology platforms that have been available for example in Syria to support the Syrian refugees, blockchain and other distributed ledger technology to track refugees so families can stay together, to provide digital identity systems that are so necessary in order to return to life in their home country, and also providing one place to look for work permits and many other devices to receive subsidies from the government, so these technology systems are developed. It’s not as though that I stand here today looking for money to develop more technology. We have these open-source systems in the world, but how do we advance and how do we use this technology to help refugees? so that is the first, how technology will support refugees. The second, and it’s so exciting to see the premise behind AI world society and artificial intelligence, and in our work the most important and I think the huge opportunities in the world for shifting to data-driven decisions that is performed through artificial intelligence. It’s happening in developed countries like the US, the UK, and Germany, and many of the countries represented here today. The council from Israel is a leader of advancement of technologies like artificial intelligence. And we think that as we look forward in recovery in Ukraine, there will be plenty of decisions that need to be made, and the combinatorial creativity of new data that’s available can help make better decisions, and we think as a premise of ai world society how can we encourage that shift from gut making decisions to actual data-driven decision-making. And the last point that I’ll make about technology is the role of new digital public infrastructure. We’ve seen this with the onset of the pandemic and throughout the last two years governments are shifting to new digital platforms that are decentralized, and they’re resilient in the face of resistance. And we think that, as professor [Alex “Sandy”] Pentland pointed out, what can we learn from the government of Estonia, there is an opportunity to shift to a distributed digital public infrastructure in Ukraine as they return and in the rebuilding of the country. It’s important to look at what technologies like blockchain could do. We have examples with countries like Estonia.

The last point I want to make, and I promise just a few points, and we’ve not had much talk today about taxation, but tax will be incredibly important. Now is the time, I believe, to be thinking of a redesigned taxing system for Ukraine. There are examples of countries that, as they are in the conflicts, they need to find ways to raise taxes. We heard today there’s a 70-billion-dollar deficit. How can they tax? For example, natural resources is one place that other similar fragile states have decided to impose taxes on extraction rates. There are opportunities to raise some revenue today, but the importance in the recovery is to go the other way, to keep taxes low. How do we encourage foreign domestic investment within Ukraine by keeping a low stable tax base? We want to make sure we at least had some discussion of taxation because I believe now is the time to form teams to actually redesign what that taxing system could be ideally coming out of this crisis.

So I want to thank you again for the opportunity to provide some remarks. Technology, innovative technology, will be incredibly important, and Ukraine will need a new tax system as well. Thank you.

Speech of German Consul General Nicole Menzenbach at the BGF Conference “Rebuilding Ukraine”

Speech of German Consul General Nicole Menzenbach at the BGF Conference “Rebuilding Ukraine”

by | Jun 5, 2022 | AIWS City and Rebuilding Ukraine, Global Alliance for Digital Governance, AIWS and the Age of Global Enlightenment

Good morning, everyone. I would like to start with a huge thank you to the Boston Global Forum for putting on this conference together. I would like to start with the fact that the horrors of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine mark a turning point in German foreign policy. This turning point, or Zeitenwende, as chancellor Olaf Scholz called it, is truly a sea change a sea change in foreign policy, a sea change in security and defense policy, and a sea change in energy and energy policy in Germany. For the first time, the German government is supplying weapons to a warring party, and Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced a plan to spend more than one billion euro to modernize our military force.

The approval is brought not only in the German parliament but also in the German population. The German government has announced on Tuesday that it will always also deliver tanks to the Ukraine. Kiev is only two hours away from berlin by plane the war crimes committed by the Nazi regime against the people of Eastern Europe are part of our collective memory. Those historical memories and seeing that an outside aggressor is bringing death and suffering to the people of Ukraine once again are the reason why Germany fundamentally changed its course of its foreign policy. The German people are doing everything they can to support refugees from Ukraine. So far more than 330,000 refugees have arrived, and the German people are welcoming with open arms.

Putin’s war of aggression also marked the end of an illusion for Germany. The assumption that we can achieve change within Russia and its government through diplomatic engagement and trade has failed. In January 2022, Germany took over the presidency of the G7. We understand that G7 is a group of democracies based on common values and global responsibility. During its one year of G7 presidency, Germany aims to tackle global challenges in a multilateral way together with our partners. We are working towards a global energy transition, a strong post-COVID economy recovery, and the prevention of the next pandemic. The war in Ukraine has dramatically shifted the attention of the G7 in the light of Russia’s unjustifiable unprovoked and illegal aggression against an independent and sovereign Ukraine. Our main objective has become to strengthen and the coordinated action of G7 along with our allies and partners in the world. The G7 nations are bringing together their collective economic weight in order to end the war in Ukraine as quickly as possible. As a result the G7 in coordination with the EU has implemented and is implementing unprecedented sanctions against Russia and Belarus. My colleague, the consul general of France Arnaud Mentré already spoke about this. And of course at the G7 level we also coordinate arms deliveries to Ukraine.

Let me end by saying it has been two months since Russia launched its unprovoked attack against its people and its peaceful neighbor. Faced by the horrifying war crimes committed by Russian troops, the people of Ukraine are fighting back heroically. This war affects the world, the whole world, whether you go along with the sanctions or not, whether you believe in international rule-based order or not.

As one of the largest industrial countries in the world, Germany has a responsibility to Ukraine. Two months after the start of the war, the crimes committed by Russia continue to dominate every headline in Germany. The German people are watching, and we are horrified by the suffering inflicted on the Ukrainian people. We are determined to work with our partners and allies to end this war as quickly as possible by imposing the heaviest possible sanctions on Russia and sending civilian and military aid to Ukraine. At the same time, Germany is addressing the humanitarian crisis by welcoming Ukrainians that needed to flee their own country. We will remain in solidarity with the Ukrainian people, and we are taking a long-term perspective on assisting Ukraine with military defense. I can also assure you that Germany will take a leading role in rebuilding Ukraine. Thank you.

Michael Dukakis Institute and Boston Global Forum support in building the Mekong Smart City in Vietnam

Michael Dukakis Institute and Boston Global Forum support in building the Mekong Smart City in Vietnam

by | Jan 23, 2022 | AIWS City, News, AIWS and the Age of Global Enlightenment

Michael Dukakis Institute and Boston Global Forum support in building the Mekong Smart City in Vietnam

On January 23, 2022 in Ho Chi Minh City, CEO of Nova Group Hoang Thu Chau and Governor of An Giang Nguyễn Thanh Bình, Governor of Dong Thap Pham Thien Nghia, signed a MOU to build the Mekong Smart City in the An Giang and Dong Thap provinces of Vietnam.

CEO of Nova Group Hoang Thu Chau and Director of Michael Dukakis Institute Nguyen Anh Tuan also signed a MOU, that the Michael Dukakis Institute will advise Nova Group in building an excellent university in Mekong area and supporting the project Mekong Smart City.

Leaders of Vietnam that attended the event are: Lê Hồng Quang, Chief of the Party of An Giang, Lê Quốc Phong, Chief of the Party of Dong Thap, Lê Đức Thọ, Chief of the Party of Ben Tre, Vu Hai Quan, President of Vietnam National University at Ho Chi Minh city, Trần Ngọc Tam, Governor of Ben Tre, Nguyen Van Giau,Vietnam’s central bank former governor, former Vice Minister of Defense Tran Don, Former Vice Minister of Public Security Vo Thai Hoa, and others.

Mr. Bui Thanh Nhon, Chairman of Nova Group, said at the event:

“Tan Chau town (An Giang) and Hong Ngu district, Hong Ngu city (Dong Thap) are located at the headwaters of the Mekong River, which is the gateway for trade between Vietnam and Cambodia. This is a rich and precious land that developed very early. And I am fortunate to be the son of 2 provinces An Giang – Dong Thap. For me, it is happiness and pride but also responsibility.”

Michael Dukakis Institute supported Nova Group in building NovaWorld Phan Thiet as a flagship city to welcome the United Nations Centennial.

Former Japanese State Minister of Defense Yasuhide Nakayma will speak at the MIT Digital Bretton Woods Conference

Former Japanese State Minister of Defense Yasuhide Nakayma will speak at the MIT Digital Bretton Woods Conference

by | Jun 4, 2022 | Event Updates

The Building the Foundation for the Global Digital Economy Conference (Digital Bretton Woods) is organized by Boston Global Forum, EY, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Connection Science, Prosperity Collaborative, and the World Bank on June 27-29, 2022 at MIT.

Global opportunities and challenges call for global action. The world is far past the Washington-consensus, in search of a new development paradigm. A paradigm that must reconcile national strategies for prosperity with the deepening integration of the world’s economies, driven by the digitalization of communication, commerce, and knowledge. This calls for renewed international cooperation and stronger global institutions.

The Digital Bretton Woods conference responds to this challenge through five themes of reinvention:

  • Developing a Growth Strategy in the Digital Economy
  • Investing in Digital Infrastructure
  • Managing Disruptive Technologies
  • Strengthening the Governance of Digital Systems
  • AIWS Government for Ukraine

These themes are part of a single continuum of reinvention.

The first theme on growth strategies aims to reconceptualize growth in the digital era, recognizing that the systems of value creation are rapidly evolving, the product cycles shorter, and the policy handles changing. Importantly, digitalization calls for a stronger treasury role in coordinating public investments in digital platforms, leveraging big data for evidence-based policy making, and rethinking the government’s role in promoting innovation.

The second theme recognizes that governments play a critical role in regulating and investing in digital infrastructure, including taxation, trade, digital identity, and payment systems. These foundational systems improve how services are delivered to citizens and enable the creation of new markets and ecosystems in which private-sector firms and other players can compete and collaborate.

The third theme explores the opportunities and risks created by emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, blockchain, quantum computing, and the Internet of Things. These innovations can impact critical infrastructure, transform industries, and redefine the way in which governments interact with their citizens. Consequently, the technologies need to be carefully assessed in terms of their economic and society impacts.

Finally, the development of new digital infrastructure and disruptive technologies call for strengthening governance frameworks to ensure that technology design and implementation, and multi-stakeholder collaboration around technology, are equitable and responsible. These governance challenges go beyond improving information security and privacy control. Core issues center around the delegation of decision making to autonomous systems on economic, legal, and administrative matters; reallocating the ownership of data to individuals and local communities; and the creation of trusted, decentralized information systems that respect privacy while promoting transparency and value creation.

This is a very significant event recognized by the Global Alliance for Digital Governance. At this conference, AIWS Government for Ukraine and AIWS City for Ukraine, as parts of the Rebuilding Ukraine program, will be presented and discussed as a pilot project for these reinventions.

Former State Minister of Defense, Yasuhide Nakayama, the leader of Global Alliance for Digital Governance (GADG) in Japan and Taiwan, and other coordinators of GADG will speak at this event.

Statement of Boston Global Forum on Russia and Ukraine

Statement of Boston Global Forum on Russia and Ukraine

by | Feb 20, 2022 | AIWS City and Rebuilding Ukraine, Statements, News

Boston, 02/20/2022

We, the Boston Global Forum (BGF), an organization dedicated to promoting a more peaceful world through its World Leader for Peace and Security Award (its recipients have been Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chancellor Angela Merkel, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, President Toomas Hendrik Ilves, President Sauli Niinisto, President Vaira Vike-Freiberga, President Ursula von der Leyen, Riksdag Speaker Andreas Norlen), urgently call upon concerned parties to peacefully resolve the conflict between Russia and Ukraine in a way that upholds the rule of law and the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and legitimate security interests of both nations.

We urge Ukraine to pledge not to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and not accept offensive military weapons on its soil. We urge Russia to pledge respect for the independence of Ukraine on land, air, sea, and cyberspace and to refrain from acts that threaten the territorial integrity of Ukraine and its people’s right to self-determination. We urge other nations to respect these commitments and refrain from acts disruptive thereof.

We urge the world community to respond to the current crisis by developing binding new international rules and instruments to safeguard the rights, interests, and integrity of countries that are too weak on their own to withstand aggressive hostile actions by more powerful countries. We, the Boston Global Forum, commit to assisting in the development of the new international rules and instruments and to advocating for their adoption.

Michael Dukakis, Co-founder and Chair, Boston Global Forum

Tuan Anh Nguyen, Co-founder and CEO, Boston Global Forum

Thomas Patterson, Co-founder, Boston Global Forum

Statement of Boston Global Forum on Russia and Ukraine

Rebuilding Ukraine with AIWS City Conceptual Model

by | May 28, 2022 | Global Alliance for Digital Governance, AIWS City, Reports, AIWS City and Rebuilding Ukraine, AIWS and the Age of Global Enlightenment

The Ukrainian people are currently enduring an unprovoked war that has resulted in tens of thousands of combatant and civilian deaths. Many cities and towns have been destroyed by indiscriminate Russian bombing. The free, democratic nations of the world have rallied around Ukraine to provide military and humanitarian assistance. The focus of the Boston Global Forum is to call on and coordinate world leaders, distinguished thinkers, innovators, governments, companies, and organizations in helping to end the war and provide for the basic needs of the Ukrainian people who remain in the country and those who have fled. As soon as the war ends, there is an opportunity for Ukraine and its allies to rebuild the nation as a model of peace, stability, and prosperity. The Boston Global Forum is starting to build strategies and programs for Rebuilding Ukraine, and AIWS City can provide a conceptual model for the rebuilding process.

About AIWS City

The AIWS City is an online digital city built on the foundation of AI technology and blockchain, with a view to bringing together cultural, historical, creative, innovative, and artistic values ​​of humanity, as well as offering a venue for world leaders, including thinkers, political leaders, creators, innovators, and educators, to promote a more civilized and prosperous world, one based on fundamental human values. AIWS City is guided by the principles of the [Social Contract for the AI ​​Age | Link to another page about Social Contract for the AI Age]. Thanks to AI technology and blockchain, the virtual City of AIWS will connect with activities and events in science, technology, culture, history, architecture, art, and economy at physical cities such as Boston, New York, San Francisco, Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt, Stockholm, Rome, Athens, and other epitomes of human civilizations. Thereby, AIWS city draws upon the diverse knowledge, experiences, lessons, and especially the vast human intellectuality, expertise, and creativity from these connected cities.

The sharing of diverse knowledge and expertise allows AIWS City to pioneer initiatives in higher education with the application of AI and Blockchain: The AIWS University. AIWS University will be a place of lifelong learning, deep reflection, personal growth and recognition, and studying with the world’s great professors. At the individual level, each “resident” of AIWS City citizen will have a Digital Home for storing and processing personal data and will work with others to build the AI World Society, dedicated to improving the lives of all through innovative and prudent applications of AI.

 

Objective

To rebuild destroyed cities in Ukraine as smart and democratic cities, where:

  • citizens are directly involved in the political decisions of the country,
  • institutions and structures promote kind, humane, civilized, creative, and innovative policies and practices,
  • the rule of law protects equality of opportunities for all people,
  • engagements with civic institutions are open and transparent, and
  • the system of taxation is transparent, equitable, and provides sufficient certainty to citizen taxpayers to aid in Ukraine’s recovery.

Strategies for Rebuilding Ukraine

As Ukraine turns its attention to rebuilding the nation and society following hostilities, it is imperative to apply standards, norms, and common values outlined in the Social Contract for the AI Age and pioneering ideas and concepts contained in the book “Remaking the World – Toward an Age of Global Enlightenment,” with contributions by distinguished leaders and thinkers. The book “Remaking the World” advances pioneering ideas that could help reshape the world as the United Nations progresses toward its centennial in 2045 and addresses the standards that should govern the development and use of AI and digital technology. These ideas and standards have been the subject of several recent conferences, including the World Leadership Alliance-Club de Madrid Policy Labs on September 16-18, 2020 and September 7-9, 2021, and the Riga Conferences in 2020 and 2021.

As Ukraine rebuilds, it will have the opportunity to incorporate the features above into its cities. While physical facilities must without question be reconstructed, the operations of these facilities could be connected to those of other cities that are currently alliances of AIWS, and AIWS City itself, through AI technology and blockchain. For example, as Kharkiv rebuilds the universities that were destroyed by Russian bombardment, it could connect with AIWS University and other universities in Boston, Berlin, Rome, and even Kyiv (if intact). Students in Kharkiv would then be able to take a wide range of virtual courses offered by top universities around the world. As Mariupol rebuilds the hospitals that were targeted by Russian artillery, medical professionals from these hospitals can connect with doctors from hospitals around the world to collaborate virtually, given that virtual medication or “telehealth” has been underway. Virtual meetings with psychologists might also fill the demand for post-war psychological conditions in the population. Additionally, based upon the Estonian model, Ukraine can develop an e-government platform, using blockchain technology, to enhance the efficiency and transparency of identification, taxation, and other governmental processes. A more detailed plan is outlined below.

Plan to build AI World Society (AIWS) City for Ukraine:

  • Apply the conceptual model of AIWS City to rebuild Ukrainian cities as smart cities.
  • Connect historical, traditional cities as Boston, New York, Washington DC, San Francisco, LA, Chicago, Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt, Stockholm, Rome, Athens, Vienna, Paris, London, Madrid, Barcelona, Copenhagen, Edinburg, Amsterdam, Brussels, Prague, Dubrovnik, Zurich, Geneva, Jerusalem, Tokyo etc. to the AIWS City for Ukraine.
  • Build a digital platform and components of AIWS City for Ukraine: digital homes, art and cultural institutions, smart digital and AI universities, innovation ecosystems, smart healthcare centers, markets and exchanges.

Infrastructure:

As Ukraine reconstruct physical infrastructures, it can incorporate the following strategies:

  • Use advanced analytics to minimize costs and maximize effectiveness
  • Connect virtually with institutions that serve similar functions around the world
  • BGF connects and calls on cities, governments, companies, foundations to support Ukrainian government and cities to reconstruct cities and transportation system of Ukraine.

Projects and Programs for Rebuilding Ukraine:

Phase 1: Civic and Social Engagement
  1. Michael Dukakis Leadership Fellows for Ukraine

Michael Dukakis Institute for Leadership and Innovation develops and supports young Ukrainian leaders

  1. AIWS Leadership for Ukraine

Michael Dukakis Institute for Leadership and Innovation educates leaders to lead and rebuild Ukraine

  1. AIWS University for Ukraine
  • supports Ukrainian students and universities,
  • builds “Online Center of Knowledge for Innovation” to support Ukraine,
  • builds online resources to help connect and guide Ukrainian refugees so that they can quickly rebuild their lives,
  • applies AIWS Awards to recognize contributions of students and scholars to Ukrainian students and universities,
  • led by Harvard Professor Thomas Patterson, Professor Francesco Lapenta, Former Japanese State Minister Yasuhide Nakayama, Bui Thanh Nhon, Coordinators
  1. Creating and building global brand names for Ukraine

Advise and help promote PR high quality products and services of Ukraine become global brand names.

Professor John Quelch and Nguyen Anh Tuan, Coordinators

  1. Building a Digital and AI Platform for Ukrainian cities (AIWS City for Ukraine)
  • Every citizen has one digital home
  • Bring values from cities of the world to Ukraine
  • Bring solutions to reconstruct infrastructure of Ukrainian cities
  • BGF connects and calls upon cities, governments, companies, foundations to support Ukrainian government and cities to reconstruct cities and transportation system of Ukraine,
  • Led by Governor Michael Dukakis, Prime Minister Zlatko Lagumdzija and BGF CEO Nguyen Anh Tuan, Coordinators

 

Phase 2: AIWS Government for Ukraine
  • Build a “smart” government aided by AI and Digital technologies, guided by concepts of AIWS Government
  • Develop the next generation of digital public infrastructure, modeled after Estonia and other leading digital government nations
  • AIWS Citizen and Information Ecosystem for Ukraine
  • Ukraine Community Innovation Ecosystem, including new distributed systems for greater national resilience
  • AIWS Financial System, with a reimagined set of tax policies that encourage future growth and prosperity for Ukraine

Led by Jason Furman, Mats Karlsson, Alex Sandy Pentland, Jeff Saviano

Resources for Support of Ukraine

  • AIWS Network of distinguished leaders, thinkers, innovators (AIWS.net) and AIWS.city
  • Call on companies, universities, and foundations for support
  • Connect and invite top universities from across the globe
  • Coordinate private companies: Google, Microsoft, Amazon, IBM, Apple, EY
  • Encourage students and professors in Ukraine and countries around the world to join the rebuilding of Ukraine
  • Cooperate with Harvard Shorenstein Center, Niemann Foundation, Berkman Center, and MIT Media Lab
  • Connect governments to support Ukraine to build AIWS Government and AIWS Citizen system.

Advisor: Jason Furman, Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers to President Obama, Harvard professor

Contributors: Professors Alex Sandy Pentland, Thomas Patterson, Nazli Choucri, David Silbersweig, Francesco Lapenta, former Vice President of the World Bank Mats Karlsson, former Prime Minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina Zlatko Lagumdzija, former President of Latvia Vaira Vike-Freiberga, father of Internet Vint Cerf, Assistant Secretary of Massachusetts Government Nam Pham, EY Global Tax Innovation Leader Jeff Saviano