"Artificial Intelligence, Real Regulation: International Perspectives and Prospects" - October 19, 2023
A mere six months ago, POLITICO's Digital Bridge captured the state of global reaction to the generative AI tsunami this way in "Why Global AI Rulemaking is Harder Than You Think":
"If generative AI Has Done Anything...it has focused minds on the need for the world of artificial intelligence to get rules — and fast — to calm everyone’s nerves. Luckily, such proposals, many of which span borders, are here. You’ve got UNESCO’s Ethics of AI Agreement; the Council of Europe’s Convention of AI; the European Union’s AI Act; the White House’s Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights; more national AI strategies than you can shake a stick at, including China’s AI rulebook; upcoming transatlantic “Trustworthy AI” Guidelines; and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) AI Principles."
Since then, the GenAI wave has grown and rolled on. Governments and civil society have paddled madly to catch, and maybe even get ahead, of it. Subsequent developments, to name just a few, include: Britain's upcoming November Bletchley Park Summit; trilogue negotiations on the European Union's AI Act ( as amended to address GenAI); the G7 Hiroshima Declaration on AI and Internet Governance; the US Senate majority leader's SAFE AI Innovation Framework and AI Insight fora; scores of bills proposed in the US Congress; dozens at the state level; and many more regulatory proposals around the globe.
To help make sense of the many and multiplying efforts to coordinate future "GenAI" policy and governance around the globe, ACM's Technology Policy Council is pleased to present the latest in its HotTopics webinar series, "Artificial Intelligence, Real Regulation: International Perspectives and Prospects"—now on demand.
Panelists
Michel Beaudouin-Lafon (moderator) is Professor of Computer Science, Classe Exceptionnelle, at Université Paris-Saclay, senior fellow of Institut Universitaire de France, recipient of the CNRS Silver Medal and ACM Fellow. He has worked in human-computer interaction for over 30 years and was elected to the ACM SIGCHI Academy in 2006. His research interests include fundamental aspects of interaction, novel interaction techniques, computer-supported cooperative work and engineering of interactive systems. He has published over 200 papers and advised over 30 Ph.D. students. His current research is conducted in the Ex-Situ group, a joint lab between Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS and Inria. He is the laureate of an ERC Advanced Grant and an ERC Proof-of-Concept project, head of the infrastructure projects Digiscope (6.7M€) then CONTINUUM (13.6M€), and co-director of the eNSEMBLE project on the future of digital collaboration (38M€).
Beaudouin-Lafon was director of LRI, the laboratory for computer science joint between Université Paris-Sud and CNRS (280 faculty, staff, and Ph.D. students) from 2002 to 2009, head of the Human-Centered Computing lab at LRI (2013-2020), and chair of the Department of Science and Technology of Information and Communication (STIC) of Université Paris-Saclay (2018-2020). He is currently adjunct director of the newly created lab LISN (380 people). He participates in the evaluation of many research institutions and research proposals at the French, European and international levels, such as the European Research Council panels for starting, advanced and synergy grants.
He founded and co-directed two international masters in HCI and was co-director of the doc-toral school in computer science. He founded AFIHM, the Francophone association for human-computer interaction, and was its first president. Beaudouin-Lafon has also been active in ACM and SIGCHI for over 25 years, including as Technical Program Co-chair for CHI 2013 in Paris (3500 participants, 1000 presentations). He sits on the editorial boards of ACM Books and ACM TOCHI, has served on the ACM Council, ACM Europe Council and ACM Publications Board, and on several award and nominating committees of ACM and SIGCHI. He is currently vice-chair of the ACM Technology Policy Council. He received the ACM SIGCHI Lifetime Service Award in 2015.
Dame Wendy Hall, DBE, FRS, FREng is Regius Professor of Computer Science, Associate Vice President (International Engagement) and Executive Director of the Web Science Institute at the University of Southampton. She was Dean of the Faculty of Physical Science and Engineering from 2010 to 2014 and Head of the School of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS) from 2002 to 2007.
One of the first computer scientists to undertake serious research in multimedia and hyper-media, she has been at its forefront ever since. The influence of her work has been significant in many areas including digital libraries, the development of the Internet, and the emerging research discipline of Web Science. Her current research includes exploring interfaces between the social and physical sciences through the development of Web Science and the study of online systems through a sociotechnical lens. She is Managing Director of the Web Science Trust.
She became a Dame Commander of the British Empire in the 2009 UK New Year’s Honours list and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in the same year. She was elected President of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) in July 2008, and was the first person from outside North America to hold this position. She is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Institution of Engineering and Technology and the ACM. She is a distinguished fellow of the British Computer Society. She was Senior Vice President of the Royal Academy of Engineering (2005-8), a member of the UK Prime Minister’s Council for Science and Technology (2004-10), and a founder member of the Scientific Council of the European Research Council (2005-10). She was President of the British Computer Society (2003-4), an EPSRC Senior Research Fellow (1996-2002) and a member of the EPSRC Council (1997-2002).
In 2017, Dame Wendy was Co-Chair of the UK government’s AI Review, which was published in October 2017. She became a member of the AI Council and was appointed the first UK AI Skills Champion in 2018. She was Chair of the Ada Lovelace Institute (2020-2023). She is currently the co-Chair of the ACM Publications Board and Editor-in-Chief of Royal Society Open Science. She is an advisor to the UK government and many other governments and companies around the world. Her latest book, Four Internets, co-written with Kieron O’Hara and published by OUP in 2021, is about data, geopolitics and the governance of cyberspace.
Juha Heikkila is Adviser for Artificial Intelligence in the European Commission Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology. He is developing the international dimension of the EU AI strategy at the Commission and is engaged in both bilateral and multilateral international work. He has long been involved in developing the Commission Artificial Intelligence and Robotics activities, previously leading a unit which was instrumental in developing the AI strategy published in 2018, the Coordinated Plan on AI, the ecosystem of excellence of the White Paper, and engaging with the High-Level Expert Group on AI. He oversaw a major funding programme on Robotics and AI, including the €700m Public-Private Partnership in Robotics, and set up the Public-Private Partnership in AI, Data and Robotics. Heikkilä holds a PhD in Linguistics from Cambridge University.
Marc Rotenberg is Executive Director and Founder of the Center for AI and Digital Policy. He is a leading expert in data protection, open government, and AI policy. He has served on many international advisory panels, including the OECD AI Group of Experts. Marc helped draft the Universal Guidelines for AI, a widely endorsed human rights framework for the regulation of Artificial Intelligence. Rotenberg is the author of several textbooks including the 2020 AI Policy Sourcebook and Privacy and Society (West Academic 2016). He teaches privacy law and the GDPR at Georgetown Law. He has spoken frequently before the US Congress, the European Parliament, the OECD, UNESCO, judicial conferences, and international organizations. Hehas directed international comparative law studies on Privacy and Human Rights, Cryptography and Liberty, and Artificial Intelligence and Democratic Values. Rotenberg is a graduate of Harvard College, Stanford Law School, and Georgetown Law.