|
Leaders of AIWS City, including Professor Alex Sandy Pentland (MIT), Professor Nazli Choucri (MIT) and Mr. Nguyen Anh Tuan (Boston Global Forum), spoke at World Leadership Alliance – Club de Madrid (WLA-CdM) Policy Dialog October 28-30, 2020. The Boston Global Forum supported WLA-CdM Policy Dialog 2020, and the Call to Action below:
The world is again at a crossroad, confronted with a danger of sliding into a downward spiral of unbridled contest and power politics. But there is an alternative. We must seize this moment to set the world on a new path, a path that will end the assault threatening the foundations of our very existence, particularly that of the most vulnerable amongst us. We have to craft a path that will lead us to an equitable, secure and sustainable system of global cooperation and renewed multilateral institutions, fit for purpose in the 21st century and resilient against future disasters.
- Multilateral cooperation is not an option, it is essential to the preservation of our societal values and the resolution of transnational challenges related to peace and security; economic and financial stability and growth; ecological sustainability, digital transformation; trade; pandemics and others.
- Humankind is capable of transcending existing challenges building bridges, re-establishing trust and working actively and responsibly to manage systemic global risks and transnational challenges to protect the Global Commons.
- Multilateral institutions require increased participation, inclusion, local ownership and capacity of all, from those most impacted by global challenges on the ground to civil society, labor unions, the private sector, State and non-State actors, all the way to the Security Council.
- A forward-looking, viable and people-centered strategy of pragmatic dialogue,solidarity and trust are crucial for a reinvigorated, inclusive and effective multilateralism.
- We will advocate for the needed reforms constructively, decisively and persistently until the multilateral system is transformed into a more responsive framework fit for 21st century purpose.
The full Call to Action can be read here.
|
|
|
|
The Parliament Assembly of the Council of Europe has adopted a new resolution on the Need for Democratic Governance of Artificial Intelligence. The Assembly called for “strong and swift action” by the Council of Europe. The parliamentarians warned that “soft-law instruments and self-regulation have proven so far not sufficient in addressing these challenges and in protecting human rights, democracy and rule of law.”
"AI can bring about economic and social progress, and improve government transparency and democratic participation, but it can also be used to disrupt democracy through interference in electoral processes, or manipulating public opinion,” the parliamentarians stressed, adopting unanimously a resolution based on the report of Deborah Bergamini (Italy, EPP/CD). She warned that filtering information and mass surveillance, enabled by AI, “risk undermining civil rights and political freedoms and the emergence of digital authoritarianism.”
The Council of Europe resolution also follows extensive work by the COE Ad Hoc Committee on Artificial Intelligence (CAHAI). In September 2020 the COE Committee of Ministers approved the CAHAI progress report, which concluded that the “Council of Europe has a crucial role to play today to ensure that AI applications are in line with human rights protections.” The Ministers asked the CAHAI to draft a feasibility study on a legal instrument that could “regulate the design, development and application of AI that have a significant impact on human rights, democracy and the rule of law.” The COE Ministers also proposed that the CAHAI should examine “human rights impact assessments” and “certification of algorithms and AI systems.”
The COE is a leader in the realm of international legal instruments and human rights. All Council of Europe member states have signed up to the European Convention on Human Rights, a treaty designed to protect human rights, democracy and the rule of law. And Article 8 of that Convention has done much to shape modern privacy law. There are 47 member states, including the 27 members of the European Union. COE Conventions are also open for ratification by non-member state. The original COE Convention on Privacy (Convention 108) was ratified by 56 countries.
Parliamentarians with both the Council of Europe and the European Union have now made clear the need to adopt legislation for the democratic governance of Artificial Intelligence. And the Social Contract for the Age of AI, developed in collaboration with the Boston Global Forum and the Club of Madrid, also urges governments to pass laws to ensure that AI respects fundamental rights and benefits society. The Boston Global Forum and the Club be Madrid now propose a new Democratic Alliance for Digital Governance to promote and to enforce the Social Contract.
Marc Rotenberg, Director
Center for AI and Digital Policy at Michael Dukakis Institute
The Center for AI and Digital Policy, founded in 2020, advises governments on technology policy
|
|
|
This week in The History of AI at AIWS.net - “Learning Multiple Layers of Representation” by Geoffrey Hinton was published in October 2008. The paper proposed new approaches to deep learning. In place of backpropagation, another concept Hinton introduced prior, Hinton proposes multilayer neural networks. This is so because backpropagation faced limitations such as requiring labeled training data. The paper can be read here.
Deep learning is a part of the broader machine learning field in Artificial Intelligence. The process is a method that is based on artificial neural networks with representation learning. It is “deep” in that it uses multiple layers in the networks. In the modern day, it has been utilised in various fields with good results.
Geoffrey Hinton is an English-Canadian cognitive psychologist and computer scientist. He is most notable for his work on neural networks. He is also known for his work into Deep Learning. Hinton, along with Yoshua Bengio and Yann LeCun (who was a postdoctorate student of Hinton), are considered the “Fathers of Deep Learning”. They were awarded the 2018 ACM Turing Award, considered the Nobel Prize of Computer Science, for their work on deep learning.
This paper is important in the History of AI because it introduces new perspective on deep learning. Instead of another ground-breaking concept like backpropagation, Hinton shows another method in the field. Geoffrey Hinton is also an important role in Deep Learning, which is a field of Machine Learning, part of Artificial Intelligence.
|
|
At the United Nations 2045 Roundtable, moderated by Ramu Damodaran, Chief of the United Nations Academic Impact, on October 27, 2020, Ambassador Swanee Hunt brought a moving and emotional talk about Maestro Charles Ansbacher, her husband, bringing classical music to the public along her life as the US Ambassador to Austria. She also shared her experience as Founder of the Women and Public Policy Program, a research center concerned with domestic and foreign policy, which she directed for more than a decade at the Harvard Kennedy School. Her experience inspired leaders of the AIWS City bring classical music for people of the AIWS City. An expert on domestic policy and foreign affairs, Hunt also chairs the Washington-based Institute for Inclusive Security, conducting research, training, and advocacy to integrate women into peace processes. She will become a Culture Ambassador of the AIWS City.
|
|
|
|
Greece honored Mike Dukakis with Order of Honor of the Grand Commander on Saturday October 24. The award ceremony took place in the yard of the home of Michael Dukakis in the town of Brookline, Massachusetts. Ambassador of Greece to the United States Alexandra Papadopoulou presented Michael Dukakis with the award on behalf of the President of the Hellenic Republic Katerina Sakellaropoulou.
Deputy Foreign Minister Kostas Vlassis participated in the ceremony via internet and in his speech he congratulated Dukakis on his services in political life and in the Greek-American community, as well as for his support of Greek National Issues. He also stressed that his overall career in U.S. public life, always keeping his eyes on Greece, was an example to be imitated and a source of inspiration for the younger generations of Greek-Americans, according to an announcement by the deputy minister's office.
Dukakis is the longest-serving governor in Massachusetts history and was nominated by the Democratic Party for president in 1988. As a member of the Greek-American Community, he carried out important charitable, social and educational activities.
Governor Michael Dukakis is a co-founder and the Chairman of the Boston Global Forum, AIWS.net, and AIWS City.
|
|
|
At the United Nations 2045 Roundtable, October 27, 2020, Prime Minister Zlatko Lagumdzija, member of Board of Leaders of the AIWS City, presented as a keynote speaker:
“Our goal is to construct an all-digital, virtual, intelligent, and innovative ecosystem for work – endowed with kindness and consideration, and anchored in intellect. We call this initiative “the AI World Society City” (the AIWS City), with domain name: AIWS.city. This is an initiative targeted to implementation and to practice – not to concepts per se or to aspiration.
This means that we must consider matters of practice derived from – or anchored in -- from “Social Contract for the AI Age”, which reflects the People Centered Economy, and the Intellectual Society-Thoughtful Intellectual Civil Society. We anticipate using the global Internet – and its connected networks – to help create an ecosystem for work and life supported by AI advances with the philosophy of the People Centered Economy.
We consider the AIWS City to be an application and a practice of what Vint Cerf has called “The People Centered Economy.” The core concept, in Vint Cerf’s words is as follows: “All people can create value for each other. A good economy has an ecosystem of organizations that lets that happen in the most meaningful and fulfilling ways.”
In those terms, the motivation and dominant feature is the fulfillment of individual well-being. He expressed the benefits for European cities, including his city, Sarajevo, when connected and become AIWS Gem Cities. He calls for the rebirth of great cultural European values for the AI Age through the AIWS City.
|
|
|
|
|
