The UN Secretary-General's AI Advisory Body recently launched its Interim Report: Governing AI for Humanity. The report’s proposal to strengthen and enhance the international governance of artificial intelligence (AI) is an important starting point towards bridging the critical global-level digital policy gap that widens with every passing day.
IT for Change responded to the interim report with a focus on opportunities and enablers, risks and challenges, and guiding principles to form global governance institutions for AI. In our response, we highlight the following recommendations for the final report:
• A rights-based approach towards AI governance must be emphasized, specifically one that seeks to address historical and contextual injustices;
• rights must be considered non-negotiable within risk assessment frameworks, i.e., they must be maintained regardless of the risk associated with external factors;
• the final report must outline mechanisms to protect and maintain the right to self-determination which would include the right to participate in democratic debate on the design, deployment, and purpose of AI technologies; and
• the final report must probe ecological harms associated with AI further.
Read our complete response here.