Next seminar (Sem #3): ‘What can government policies tell us about the future implementation of AI technology?’

When	Tuesday 12 January 2020, 13:00–15:00 (Central European Time) on Zoom.
Presenter	Niels van Berkel (Aalborg University)
Discussant	David Moats (Linköping University)
Recommended texts	van Berkel, N., Papachristos, E., Giachanou, A., Hosio, S., & Skov, M. B. (2020). A Systematic Assessment of National Artificial Intelligence Policies: Perspectives from the Nordics and Beyond. In Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction. Jobin, A., Ienca, M., & Vayena, E. (2019). The global landscape of AI ethics guidelines. Nature Machine Intelligence, 1(9), 389-399.
Abstract	The presentation and discussion is based on two recent articles that analyse (national) government policy and strategy guidelines related to Artificial Intelligence (AI). Given the increasing impact of AI on industry, commerce, legislation, and research, national governments are both a driver behind the development of new AI applications and gatekeeper of new technology introductions. Following this rising interest, national governments are profiling their AI developments and investments on their national values. What these values mean in practice, and how they might affect the deployment of (commercial) AI technology across the globe is an open question. Following the increasing call for human-centred AI applications, the collaboration and development of standards for AI among culturally aligned partners becomes an increasingly relevant consideration for all stakeholders of future AI projects.
Questions	To what degree can national (or commercial) policy document inform us about a country’s future AI development plans? Can we use existing plans to identify clusters of countries that outline a similar strategy? What role do shared cultural values play in this alignment? How can the values of a society, for example as found in the Nordic countries, be best represented in AI applications? Do we expect AI applications from the same manufacturer to behave differently in different cultures?