Governor Michael Dukakis, Professor Nazli Choucri, President Vaira Vike-Freiberga, Prime Minister Zlatko, State Minister Yasuhide Nakayama, Ms. Merve Hitkok, and Mr. Andrew W. Wyckoff spoke and discussed at the first panel for AI International Accord on February 19, 2021.
Pulitzer-winning journalist and former Assistant Secretary of State Douglas Frantz moderated the Panel.
Boston Global Forum is the first organization to build a framework of an international accord on Artificial Intelligence. This panel is the first of this initiative.
Governor Michael Dukakis opened the panel by expressing a message of hope. He emphasized the hope of possibility to collaborate with the new administration in the USA and hoped to return to a spirit of international collaboration.
Professor Choucri started by touching on the challenges, opportunities, and imperatives that AI poses.
Challenges
- How to establish stable principles and processes in a context that is rapidly changing
- No longer just governments, also private sectors, NGOs and individuals
Opportunities
- Figuring out what has worked best when, how and why in regards to international agreements and frameworks?
- Lines of cleavages have not yet been drawn, it is still fluid. We have potential to find ways to cooperate and transform these cleavages
Imperatives
- Governments do not really control AI realm, there are also many private actors
- How to regulate without dampening innovation
She concluded by stating that the most immediate path is to take into account and connect with other constituencies that are trying to respond to AI reality as well. We need a multi-stakeholder support system.
AI Ethicist Merve Hickok emphasized the importance of building alliances and accountability structures to hold actors accountable. She further touched on the report “Artificial Intelligence and Democratic Values- AISCI 2020” by the Center for AI and Digital Policy of Michael Dukakis Institute and the importance of monitoring the activities of governments and companies.
Michael Dukakis also emphasized the need to help all countries not just the non-democratic ones. There is a new state of world affairs and new technologies are helping to spread disinformation which also strongly affects countries like the USA. There is a need for be global solutions that also help democratic countries as they are also struggling with this new state of affairs.