Category: AI

AI Governance: Digital Responsibility as a Building Block

Towards an Index of Digital Responsibility By Eva Thelisson, Jean-Henry Morin and Johan Rochel The rapid development of AI-based technologies significantly impacts almost all human activities as they are tied to already existing underlying systems and services. In order to make sure that these technologies are at least transparent if not provably beneficial for human […]

Artificial Intelligence Needs Assessment Survey in Africa

Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications continue to expand opportunities for humankind’s progress and to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. UNESCO is working to harness these opportunities in its fields of competence and has been leading reflections around pressing concerns related to AI’s rapid development, from a Human Rights and ethics perspective. These range from AI’s role in […]

Council of Europe proposes ban on Facial Recognition techniques

In a press statement on January 28, 2021, the Council of Europe called for strict limits on facial recognition technologies. Furthermore, the Council stated, certain applications of facial recognition should be banned altogether to avoid discrimination. The Council cited risks to privacy and data protection. In a new set of guidelines addressed to governments, legislators and businesses, the 47-state human rights […]

G20 Digital Economy Task Force – Examples of National AI Policies (2020)

The international policy debate on artificial intelligence (AI) has gained significant momentum in recent years and in 2019 the G20’s global leadership and advocacy brought the opportunities and challenges of AI to the centre of international political discussions. Following stewardship from the Digital Economy Task Force (DETF) and with the aim of fostering public trust […]

Getting the Future Right: AI and Fundamental Rights

New technologies have profoundly changed how we organise and live our lives. In particular, new data-driven technologies have spurred the development of artificial intelligence (AI), including increased automation of tasks usually carried out by humans. The COVID-19 health crisis has boosted AI adoption and data sharing – creating new opportunities, but also challenges and threats […]

The ethical aspects of Artificial Intelligence

The last few months have been a tumultuous ride for those of us concerned about ensuring our fundamental rights are protected as the EU develops its artificial intelligence (AI) policy. While EU Commission Vice Presidents Vestager and Jourová recently committed to “proactively” combating the threat of AI systems reinforcing structural discrimination, other developments have been […]

OpenAI is giving Microsoft exclusive access to its GPT-3 language model

Microsoft announced that it would begin exclusively licensing GPT-3, the world’s largest language model, built by San Francisco–based OpenAI. The model acts like a powerful autocomplete: it can generate essays given the starting sentence, songs given a musical intro, or even web page layouts given a few lines of HTML code. Microsoft says it will […]

China’s Surveillance State Goes Global

Northwest of beijing’s Forbidden City, outside the Third Ring Road, the Chinese Academy of Sciences has spent seven decades building a campus of national laboratories. Near its center is the Institute of Automation, a sleek silvery-blue building surrounded by camera-studded poles. The institute is a basic research facility. Its computer scientists inquire into artificial intelligence’s […]

First Progress Report of the Ad hoc Committee on Artificial Intelligence (CAHAI)

On 23 September 2020, the Committee of Ministers approved the progress report ofthe Ad hoc Committee on Artificial Intelligence (CAHAI), which sets out the work undertaken and progress towards the fulfilment of the committee’s mandate since it was established on 11 September 2019. The progress report sets out a clear roadmap for action towards a Council of Europe legal instrument based on human rights, the rule of law and democracy. Its clear relevance has also been confirmed and reinforced by the recent COVID-19 pandemic. The preliminary feasibility study, providing indications on the legal framework on the design, development of artificial intelligence based on Council of Europe’s standards is expected to be examined by the CAHAI at its forthcoming third plenarymeeting in December 2020. 2021 will also be dedicated to multi-stakeholder consultations and to the finalisation of the elements of the legal framework on AI. This news article was published on the Council of Europe webpage. Read more.