Over the course of this year, IFIP have had several meetings with the representatives of UNESCO that aim to reinforcing the collaboration with them.
Among the various topics discussed, four are strongly related to TC12 – Artificial Intelligence:
- AI Ethics – linked with TC12.12 AI Governance,
- UNESCO has invited and IFIP has agreed to assist UNESCO on the peer review for its toolkit on AI and the Rule of Law for judicial operators. Further details can be found here.
- UNESCO has requested IFIP’s assistance and potential collaboration on testing and refining the assessment methodology for the AI Competency Framework for Civil Servants in 2023, and
- Education of AI from early age managed in collaboration with TC3.
Prof. Amal El Fallah Segrouchni, Vice-Chair of TC12.12, has been involved in UNESCO COMEST – The World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology that elaborated and published Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence.
These recommendations contain three parts:
- Values
- Principles, and
- Policy areas
We proposed focusing on readiness assessment and on impact assessment. During the last meeting online, Gabriela Ramos, Assistant Director-General for Social and Human Sciences, UNESCO, who is in charge of AI Ethics program, promised to send us the requirements for collaboration on this substantial topic.
On the TC12 side, we have a team of AI experts standing ready to support UNESCO with these two assessments.
It has become necessary to educate about AI at all levels and to raise awareness among organisations, companies and citizens about the advantages of using suitable AIs, as well as providing warnings about possible issues. We look forward to larger collaboration with TC3 on these topics.
UNESCO has also published a “comic” about AI for teenagers, but its content should be improved by extension to all AI approaches and techniques.
- Partnership with ITU AI for Good
As result of a Memorandum of Understanding between IFIP and ITU, IFIP stakeholders and members from across the globe are encouraged to contribute input and ideas for an upcoming AI for Good webinar series that IFIP is developing with ITU. For more information, please refer to this article in a previous issue of Insights.
The first webinar will take place in April 2023 and will be devoted to Smart Government in Brazil and presented by Professor André C. Ponce de Leon F. de Carvalho from Institute of Mathematics and Computer Sciences, University of São Paulo at São Carlos. André C. Ponce de Leon F. de Carvalho is the Brazilian representative of TC12; he also chairs WG12.2 on Machine Learning and Data Mining.
The second will take place in May 2023, moderated by Anthony Wong on the Australian Royal Commission Inquiry into the Robodebt Scheme. In summary, #Robodebt was an automated debt-collection system which attempted to identify purported overpayments of social welfare using algorithms and data matching, leading to the Government unlawfully asserting debts totalling $1.763 billion against approximately 433,000 Australians.
IFIP seeks further contributions from Member Societies, Committees and Working Groups. Two forms of webinars are possible: experts can speak for up to one hour followed by a discussion or it can be a one-hour panel and discussion. ITU prefers a focus on South America, Africa and the Asia-Pacific. Preferred topics relate to AI for Sustainability, covering a large spectrum of issues.
Please address your proposals to eunika@innovation3d.fr (alternative eunika.mercier-laurent@univ-reims.fr) and copy the IFIP General Secretary, Anatolii Marushchak at anatolii.marushchak@ifip.org.
