JCU Hosts Roundtable on AI, Ethics and Algorithmic Biases
On October 21, 2019, JCU hosted a high-level roundtable on A.I.: Ethics and Algorithmic Biases, co-organized by the John Cabot University Institute of Future and Innovation Studies and the Canadian Chamber in Italy within the program of “Diplomacy – Festival della Diplomazia”.
The host and moderator of the event was Professor Francesco Lapenta, Director of John Cabot University Institute of Future and Innovation Studies.
Other participants to the roundtable included:
Kai Härmand, Estonia Deputy Secretary General and Head of the Legislative Policy Department
Irene Sardellitti, European Commission
Celia Kuningas-Saagpakk, Estonian Ambassador to Italy
Fr. Philip Larrey,Chair Humanity 2.0 Foundation
Amedeo Cesta, Research Director at CNR-ISTC
Ansgar Koene, ReEnTrust, UnBias & Horizon Policy Impact, Horizon Digital Economy Research Institute. Chair for IEEE Standard on Algorithm Bias Considerations
Alexey Malanov, Antivirus expert, Kaspersky
Alina Sorgner, Professor of Applied Data Analytics, John Cabot University
Corrado Giustozzi, Cybersecurity expert at Agenzia per l’Italia Digitale CERT-PA
Massimo Buscema, Director Istituto Semeion
Andrea Gilli, Senior Researcher, NATO Defense College
Ann-Sophie Leonard, Mercator Fellow, NATO Defense College
Luca Baraldi, Cultural Diplomacy Advisor Energy Way
Fabio Filocamo, Managing Director of Dnamis
Sébastien Bratières, Director of Artificial Intelligence at Translated
The aim of the roundtable was to discuss the global impact of the recently released “EU Ethical Guidelines and Policy Recommendations” and the EU’s declared intention of creating new legislation to regulate the development of A.I. applications in Europe.
The incoming European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen expressed commitment to new legislation for a coordinated European approach on the human and ethical implications of Artificial Intelligence. The panel focused on how the announced European legislation could pioneer a coordinated effort towards an international regulation of the fast-paced developments of A.I.
Some of the questions discussed included: How do you balance technological development and regulation in one region without stiffening global competition? How do you legislate on a technological development that does not yet exist? And what technical solutions should be adopted to regulate this evolution. Should these solutions be national or globally shared and standardized? More importantly, when political, economic, cultural, social differences seem to lead to very different interpretations of the values that these A.I. applications should embed, a more fundamental discussion emerges about the global social consequences that such diversity would entail.