AIWS Weekly - Week of November 21, 2022

CREATING AN AGE OF GLOBAL ENLIGHTENMENT

Time: November 22-23, 2022
Venue: Harvard University Loeb House, 17 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA

The United Nations is championing a Global Digital Compact and Roadmap for Digital Cooperation under the leadership of the Technology Envoy of Secretary General of United Nations and his office. The UN initiative will be addressed at the UN Summit of the Future in 2024. The BGF is a strong supporter of this effort.

The Boston Global Forum framing of The United Nations Centennial Initiative as well as its publication entitled Remaking the World – Toward an Age of Global Enlightenment (with the AI World Society (AIWS), the AI International Accord, and the Social Contract for the AI Age) capture the urgent need for consolidate action. Toward this end, the BGF has established Global Alliance for Digital Governance (GADG) to coordinate global resources to buttress the creation of an Age of Global Enlightenment.

On the first day of the Conference, distinguished leaders and thinkers will honor the UN Secretary-General’s Envoy on Technology Amandeep Gill with the World Leader in AIWS Award. Ambassador Gill will present the “Distinguished Global Enlightenment Speech”. This first will also include a discussion of ways in which the BGF can contribute to the development of an Age of Global Enlightenment as indicated in its Manifesto, entitled AIWS Actions to create an Age of Global Enlightenment.

On second day, the Conference will focus on the many contributions of, and lessons learned from, the lives of the late Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the late Vietnamese Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet that helped to build critical pillars for world peace and security.

Moderators and Speakers:
Ambassador Amandeep Gill, Under Secretary General and United Nations Envoy on Technology
Governor Michael Dukakis, former Governor of Massachusetts, US Presidential Democratic Candidate 1988, co-founder and Chair of the Boston Global Forum (BGF)
Cameron Kerry, former US and Acting Secretary of Commerce
Yasukazu Hamada, Japanese Minister of Defense
Shinsuke J. Sugiyama, former Japan Ambassador to the US
Thomas Patterson, Harvard professor, BGF Board Member
Nazli Choucri, MIT professor, BGF Board Member
Alex Sandy Pentland, MIT professor, BGF Board Member
Ramu Damodaran, Co-Chair of the United Nations Centennial Initiative, the first Chief of United Nations Academic Impact
Dr. Joan Donovan, Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy’s Research Director, Harvard University
Zlatko Lagumdzija, former Prime Minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Representative of the Boston Global Forum in Balkan
Lana Cook, PhD, Assistant Director, Strategic Initiatives, MIT Open Learning
Koichi Hamada, Yale Senior Advisor to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
Tomohiko Taniguchi, Professor, Senior Advisor to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
Ichiro Fujisaki, former Japanese Ambassador to the US
Nguyen Anh Tuan, CEO, Boston Global Forum
Mats Karlsson, former Vice President of the World Bank, Representative of BGF in Sweden
Francesco Lapenta, the Founding Director of the John Cabot University Institute of Future and Innovation Studies

CONFERENCE AT THE STANFORD DIGITAL ECONOMY LAB - "BUILDING THE NEW ECONOMY: DATA AS CAPITAL"

Professor Alex Pentland highlights at the Conference on November 17, at Stanford Digital Economy Lab:

“New technologies such as Blockchain, AI, and Smart Contracts, which together are often called “Web3” present new digital means of production and an opportunity to rebalance the relationships between all stakeholders of the economy. As humans continue to develop brilliant new applications of emerging technologies, we need to reimagine the ways our society is organized so that data serves all communities. It especially important that we ensure that collective citizen organizations manage the way data is controlled, that we build more resilient and inclusive systems that spread financial and health benefits more widely, and that we ensure that systems are interoperable so that knowledge, trade, and interaction can flow across company and national boundaries.”

The Global Alliance for Digital Governance supports Professor Pentland and Stanford Digital Economy Lab in this strategy through the Manifesto “AIWS Actions to create an Age of Global Enlightenment.” In this Manifesto, Boston Global Forum (BGF) create the model “Global Enlightenment Economy” and will work with the United Nations and the governments of US, European Commission, Japan, and India. On November 22, 2022, professor Pentland will speak at the BGF 10^th Anniversary Conference at Harvard University Loeb House with speakers such as UN Envoy on Technology Amandeep Gill, Japanese Minister of Defense Yasukazu Hamada, Governor Michael Dukakis, former US Acting Secretary of Commerce Cameron Kerry, and more.

THIS WEEK IN THE HISTORY OF AI AT AIWS.NET - THE CREATION AND EXPANSION OF ARPANET

This week in the History of AI at AIWS.net - the creation and expansion of ARPANET. ARPANET stands for the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network, and was a project that was funded by ARPA and the DoD.

While urban myths claim that ARPANET was developed for communications that would survive a nuclear attack, it was actually intended to build packet switching, rather than circuit switching, which had been the traditional method of communications. Charles Herzfeld, the director of ARPA between 1965–1967, also stated that the goal was to connect the various research computers in the country, which were separated by the plain fact of geography.

ARPANET was developed in the late 60s, with four universities being the first hosts - Stanford (through the SRI lab), UCLA, UCSB, University of Utah School of Computing. In 1970, the network expanded to the East Coast, including MIT and Harvard. By 1973, the UK and Norway were added to the network through University College London and the Norwegian Seismic Array (NORSAR) respectively. It was decommissioned in 1990.

Eventually, ARPANET would lay the foundations for the Internet, which is commercialized rather than specialized. It is for this reason that the History of AI considers it a milestone in the development of AI and the Internet of Things.

AIWS SUPPORTS THE GLOBAL DIGITAL COMPACT OF UN SECRETARY GENERAL ANTONIO GUTERRES

The UN Secretary General posted on his Twitter on Nov. 16:

“It is clear that without guidance and guardrails, digital technology has huge potential for harm.
At G20 Summit, I urged leaders to support my proposal for a Global Digital Compact – firmly anchored in human rights - for an open, free, secure & inclusive internet.”

The AIWS supports his strategy. On November 22, 2022 at Harvard University Loeb House, the BGF 10^th Anniversary Conference will discuss the Manifesto “AIWS Actions to create an Age of Global Enlightenment” and honor Under-Secretary-General and UN Convoy on Technology Amandeep Gill 2022 with the World Leader in AIWS Award. Ambassador Gill will also present the “Distinguished Global Enlightenment Speech.”

REMARKS OF GOVERNOR DUKAKIS HONORING AMBASSADOR AMANDEEP GILL WITH THE 2022 WORLD LEADER IN AI WORLD SOCIETY AWARD

Harvard University, Loeb House
November 22, 2022

I am pleased to announce that this year’s recipient of the Boston Global Forum’s World Leader in AI World Society Award is Amandeep Gill, the UN Secretary-General’s Envoy on Technology.

Amandeep Gill joined the India foreign service in 1992, serving with distinction in Iran, Sri Lanka, and Switzerland before being appointed Head of the Disarmament and International Security Affairs Division of India’s Ministry of External Affairs in 2013. Four years later, he was appointed India’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva.

In 2017, Ambassador Gill helped establish India’s National Task Force on Artificial Intelligence and subsequently contributed to the drafting of UNESCO’s Al ethics guidelines.

His entry into the UN came as Executive Director of the Secretariat of the UN Secretary General’s High-Level Panel on Digital Cooperation, which led to his appointment as Envoy. Upon naming him as Envoy, the UN described Ambassador Gill as “A thought leader on digital technology, [who] brings to the position a deep knowledge of digital technologies coupled with a solid understanding of how to leverage the digital transformation responsibly and inclusively for progress on the Sustainable Development Goals.”

He has brought to the position insights he has gained as the Project Director and CEO of the International Digital Health & AI Research Collaborative based at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva. That initiative seeks to promote responsible AI research and accountable use of digital technology.

Ambassador Gill holds a bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Electrical Communications, an Advanced Diploma in French History and Language, and a PhD in Nuclear Learning in Multilateral Forums from King’s College London.

Ambassador Gill embodies the commitment to the responsible use of AI and digital technology that has defined the Boston Global Forum’s work. It gives me great pleasure to be honoring him today with the Boston Global Forum’s World Leader in AI World Society Award.

DIGITAL GOVERNMENT IS NO LONGER AN OPTION, IT IS AN IMPERATIVE

A review of the United Nations recently released 2022 E-Government Survey shows progress, surprises, and opportunity for governments across the globe in their shift to the digitization of services. Covid-19 has accelerated the need for governments to become more and more digitally accessible for their citizens as an increasing percentage of people have become more digitally savvy. Meeting your customers (in this case, your citizens) where they are, instead of forcing them to do things your way, is always the wise way to do business. But, moving the enormous bureaucratic icebergs that are governments is complicated, messy, and sometimes near impossible.

As governments worldwide are looking to streamline the delivery of services through mobile, cloud, automation, and digitalization processes, what will the future of person-to-government interaction look like? Will our relationships with our governmental entities become “better”? Or, will the archaic technologies that governments have invested in previously become a hindrance to actual progress?

By embracing the need for digital governance, these countries are poised to continue to lead the world well into the 21st century and beyond. By better serving their citizens, they will have a healthier, more informed, and more engaged citizenry, leading to a stronger society within their borders.

The Boston Global Forum (BGF), in collaboration with the United Nations Centennial Initiative, released a major work entitled Remaking the World – Toward an Age of Global Enlightenment. More than twenty distinguished leaders, scholars, analysts, and thinkers put forth unprecedented approaches to the challenges before us. These include President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, Governor Michael Dukakis, Father of Internet Vint Cerf, Former Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, Harvard University Professors Joseph Nye and Thomas Patterson, MIT Professors Nazli Choucri and Alex ‘Sandy’ Pentland, and Vice President of European Parliament Eva Kaili. The BGF introduced core concepts shaping pathbreaking international initiatives, notably, the Social Contract for the AI Age, an AI International Accord, the Global Alliance for Digital Governance, the AI World Society (AIWS) Ecosystem, and AIWS City.