Introduction: The topics of AI and Advanced ICTs might seem purely technical, but there are many non-technical areas of significance. As discussed below, these topics suggest a broad social impact. The UNESCO excerpts are offered to support awareness, as an overview of emerging areas of concern.

Interested readers are encouraged to consult the UNESCO book “Steering AI and advanced ICTs for knowledge societies: a Rights, Openness, Access, and Multi-stakeholder Perspective”, the basis for the materials here.   (unesco.org – Steering AI)

UNESCO:  “Steering AI for Knowledge Societies: A ROAM Perspective” 

(en.unesco.org – steering_AI_for_knowledge_societies.pdf)

 Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly becoming the veiled decision-maker of our times. The diverse technical applications loosely associated with this label drive more and more of our lives. They scan billions of web pages, digital trails and sensor-derived data within micro-seconds, using algorithms to prepare and produce significant decisions. AI and its constitutive elements of data, algorithms, hardware, connectivity and storage exponentially increase the power of Information and Communications Technology (ICT). This is a major opportunity for Sustainable Development, although risks also need to be addressed.

It should be noted that the development of AI technology is part of the wider ecosystem of Internet and other advanced ICTs including big data, Internet of Things, blockchains, etc. To assess AI and other advanced ICTs’ benefits and challenges – particularly for communications and information – a useful approach is UNESCO’s Internet Universality ROAM principles. These principles urge that digital development be aligned with human Rights, Openness, Accessibility and Multi-stakeholder governance to guide the ensemble of values, norms, policies, regulations, codes and ethics that govern the development and use of AI.

Using the ROAM-X prism, this document highlights implications for AI and other advanced ICTs on:

  • Human Rights such as freedom of expression, privacy and equality;
  • Openness with regards to knowledge, open data as well as open and pluralistic markets;
  • Inclusive Access in regard to research, human resources, access to data, multilingualism and hardware;
  • Multi-stakeholder governance;
  • Cross-cutting issues: gender and Africa.
Human rights implications

From algorithms that shape the way our social media news feed is shown, to those influencing decision-making in elections, AI already impacts many rights relevant to communication and information:

Right to freedom of expression
    • Content personalization by AI online is enhancing how people use their right to seek information and their right to form an opinion. At the same time this weakens the pluralism of ideas to which users are exposed.
    • AI is being used to remove content that incites hatred, discrimination and violence, but this has also blocked legitimate expression and the channels to redress this are inadequate.
Right to privacy
    • Privacy is often infringed when AI involves opaque data collection, de-anonymization, third-party data-sharing, and the tracking and profiling of individuals. However, AI could also help monitor violations and abuses of personal privacy.
    • Data protection based on consent and transparency is vital in AI, but this protection is uneven around the world, and it does not deal with the full scope of privacy concerns.
Journalism and media development
    • AI can strengthen journalism in its operations of gathering, verifying, analysing and distributing information; while automation can also free up journalists for higher level tasks.
    • However, AI is weakening the institutions of journalism and reducing their diversity by helping the migration of advertising to data-rich Internet intermediaries. Elements of AI also have a role in many digital attacks on journalists, their devices and their websites.
    • AI can disseminate false content deliberately fabricated with a harmful intention and overshadow journalistic content by amplifying such disinformation. However, AI could help identify fraudulent content like “deepfakes” and their producers.
Right to equality and participation in public life
    • Bias in algorithmic decision-making and/or data has been shown to discriminate on racial and other lines. Such use of ICT poses risks for the equal enjoyment of human rights by women and children, as well as minorities, indigenous groups, persons with disabilities, gender-based discriminated groups, and economically disadvantaged people.
    • AI elements have been abused to manipulate voters’ decision-making processes, through addiction and persuasion techniques along with the micro-targeting of disinformation.

[Each main section in the original has an “options for action” list. These sections are omitted here.]

UNESCO advocates open access to scientific research, open data, open educational resources, open science and open opportunities. This is in order to strengthen universal access to information and to bridge information inequalities.

Openness in AI raises challenges and opportunities.
Technological barriers to understanding
    • Some machine learning algorithms have a level of complexity and dimensionality that makes their inner working unintelligible to humans. This “Black-Box” problem can pose systemic risk when algorithms engage with each other.
    • Norms of disclosure and transparency are useful for clarifying intent of algorithms but are insufficient to resolve the opacity problem of AI. However, AI may also be harnessed to explain, at least in part, its own workings and its results can be audited.
Open Data
    • Open Data repositories play an important role in reducing entry barriers to AI by providing high quality data for training machine learning algorithms.
    • Openly available big data raises concerns with respect to privacy because of potential de-anonymization of individuals through triangulation using different open data sets.
Open and Pluralistic Markets Open Opportunities
    • Open and pluralistic markets are essential for fostering innovation in AI development and for efficient allocation of resources.
    • At the same time, the imperative of competition may tempt firms to take risky or protectionist decisions by ignoring ethical practices necessary for the safe and beneficial use of AI.
Openness in AI: Knowledge, Data, Markets and Opportunities

Access to data and algorithms is a determinant of AI ecosystem development. This influences the purpose of AI, the producers of AI, and who benefits or is harmed. Exacerbating existing digital disparities, there is now the growth of AI divides within and between countries. These inhibit the emergence of a diversity of applications and benefits. However, AI can enhance access for disabled persons, as well as advance multilingualism and boost documentary preservation.

Access to Research
    • The digital divide regarding the quality and the quantity of AI research is growing between and within countries.
    • A challenge is whether AI can be used to help reduce the research imbalance.
Access to Knowledge, Education and Human Resources
    • Shortage of personnel highlights the need for AI education and capacity-building, especially amongst under-represented groups and countries.
    • Some research centres draw in global talent, with the effect of brain-drain elsewhere. However, there are some efforts to upgrade skills of local employees; to crowd-source solutions; and to offer AI service platforms without costly investment in infrastructure and human resources.
    • AI’s accessibility to all depends on the competencies of the broad public to understand their engagement with it. Yet Media and Information Literacy is far from universal, and even further from empowering people with knowledge about AI issues.
Access to Data
    • Technology firms own large amounts of user data and use it to train algorithms, but this unequal access to data creates entry barriers for new entrants, including start-up firms.
    • Data commons with access to open data repositories can enable the training of algorithms that may ameliorate monopolization trends in AI development.
Access to Connectivity and Hardware
    • AI access depends on access to affordable broadband, cloud storage and specialized computational hardware that can run algorithms on processors designed to perform large numbers of calculations.
    • Emerging cloud-based possibilities can avoid large overheads or fixed-cost investments for smaller AI developers and users.
Inclusive access for AI development
Multi-stakeholder Approach for AI governance

AI applications are developed and deployed in a context that reflects gender inequalities. Does that mean AI inherently embodies sexism, or can it be gender-transformative?

Relevant issues are:

    • Male predominance in AI development;
    • Algorithmic and data discrimination against women;
    • Female interactive-voice assistants and the sex robot industry;
    • AI and gender-based discriminated groups;
    • AI-related job loss versus skills development for women;
    • Gender studies on technology;
    • Gender-biased data-sets.

Africa is a UNESCO Global Priority and an important focus for its activities related to artificial intelligence. Challenges and potentials of human resources and technical developments in AI on the continent need addressing. Speakers of smaller African languages could be left behind in regard to the development of AI-fueled speech-to-text and translation capabilities.  African-generated data can risk being mined without benefit to local stakeholders as well as being traded internationally with insufficient regard for privacy standards. A lack of AI-related policy frameworks in many governments calls out for attention, not least in regard to communication and information issues.

Cross-cutting  issues

All stakeholders – from governments, companies, technical community, IGOs, civil society to academia – are increasingly impacted by AI. They therefore have a strong interest in the evolution of norms, policies, codes, etc. that play a part in governing this technology. Due to the complexity of and uncertainty in the field of AI, decision-making is an unchartered territory. Decisions should, however, not be “made in ignorance”, and an open and inclusive multi-stakeholder approach can help pool wisdoms and promote shared norms and ethics. [ … ]

Overarching Options

All stakeholders can consider addressing AI in relation to communication-information through:

    • Using UNESCO’s Internet Universality indicators to measure human Rights, Openness, Accessibility and Multi-stakeholder participation and to thereby map and improve the ecosystem in which AI is developed, applied and governed.
    • Applying human rights norms that can inform more specific guidelines for rights to expression, privacy, and participation in public life.
    • Raising awareness of ownership and access to big data, AI skills and technologies, and the issues of who benefits, as well as harms such as marginalization or manipulation of human agency.
    • Assessing algorithmic discrimination in order to protect the right to equality of all, in particular of historically marginalized populations.
    • Participating in interdisciplinary research on how AI intersects with human rights, openness, accessibility and multi-stakeholder governance, and promoting Open Access publishing of the research results.
    • Upholding open market competition to prevent monopolization of AI, and requiring adequate safeguards against violation of ethical practices by market actors.
    • Facilitating development of norms and policies for improving openness and transparency in AI algorithms through elements of ex-ante information disclosure and ex-poste monitoring of algorithmic decision-making.
    • Working to reduce digital divides, including gender divides, in regard to AI access, and establishing independent monitoring mechanisms.
    • Motivating for more active participation in AI governance from all stakeholder groups, including but not limited to Governments, the Private Sector, Technical Community, Civil Society, Academia, International organizations and Media.
    • Ensuring gender equality, linguistic and regional diversity as well as the inclusion of youth and marginalized groups in multi-stakeholder dialogues on AI issues.
    • Integrating discussion of AI issues into relevant events such as international days around press freedom, disability, and universal access to information, and drawing in networks such as UNITWIN, Orbicom, Gapmil, and Gamag, as well Category 2 institutes, NGOs, IFAP national committees and UNESCO National Commissions.

 

Main source: UNESCO Brochure Steering AI for Knowledge Societies: A ROAM Perspective (en.unesco.org – steering_AI_for_knowledge_societies.pdf)

Based on the UNESCO book:  “Steering AI and advanced ICTs for knowledge societies: a Rights, Openness, Access, and Multi-stakeholder Perspective”

(Source link: unesdoc.unesco.org)

(Corporate author: UNESCO . UNESCO. Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information, 2018- (Chakchouk, M.). writer of preface . Person as author: Xianhong Hu , Neupane, Bhanu , Echaiz, Lucia Flores , Sibal, Prateek , Rivera Lam, Macarena . ISBN: 978-92-3-100363-9. Year of publication: 2019. Licence type: CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO. )