Accountability in the Digital Age

Glyn Moody is an independent journalist who has been writing about computer technology for almost 40 years. He is the author of the book 'Walled Culture' in this podcast he discusses copyrights and the need to reevaluate its purpose. A free digital version of his book is here: https://walledculture.org/the-book/

Why is free sharing, open source and other access to information so important? Why then are certain organisations (public and private) behaving in the opposite way, and seem to commonly strive for control and blocking information sharing? In what ways is copyright law misused? Is such misuse not merely censorship? Do you think it blocks and otherwise avoid those people and organisations to be accountability? Is balance between copyright versus the right to copy possible? What other problems arise out of invoking copyright? Does copyright actually protect or otherwise empower artists, scientists and other creators? Is it even fit for the Digital Age? What are ways forward do you see? Is providing free copies a problem, or part of the solution? What other measures would help to avoid copyright (law) abuse? This Dialogue covers all these important queries.

How should accountable AI be governed, before it is procured and deployed? And how should AI be governed from and during deployment? How to embed and monitor the humanitarian dimension, by design? It that different from having a human-centric approach? What is the definition of the common principles such as: explainability, auditability, responsibility and trustworthiness? How to respect local, regional, cultural or other ethics in global context of AI? Can we use the various AI ethical frameworks and good practices for other emerging technology as well, such as quantum computing? Do governments, politicians and others understand the impact of AI? Do we need new, creative 21st solutions for the 21st century challenges related to AI? What would then be the role of traditional solutions, such as awaiting case law? This Dialogue with Kay Firth-Butterfield, Head of AI & Machine Learning and Member of the Executive Committee World Economic Forum covers all these important queries She is also the world's first Chief AI and Ethics officer.

A dialogue with Jacques Kruse-Brandao, Alliance for Internet of Things Innovation (AIOTI) on the benefits of having a '"Device-Centric IoT Security Risk Spectra Mapping Tool"

What are the benefits of digital communication and other online engagement, over doing so offline? Can it enable, increase and even improve accountability in the offline world? And if so, what kind of accountability does it concern? How to use those digital capabilities responsibly, safely and accountably? Where and when does it work, and where and where does it not? These and other key topics are addressed in this Dialogue.

Jan Kleijssen is the Director of Information Society and Action against Crime with the Council of Europe. In this presentation he discusses the work on the world’s first treaty on AI and Human Rights to be expected in 2023.

To what extent was accountability a topic in the educational curricula of engineers, back in the days? How about ethics? What has changed since then? Why is accountability in this Digital Age nowadays so important? And, who raised the issue to take in accountability? To what extent is technology neutral? Where technology is designed for use as has become a need to have, does that change whether technology can be seem as neutral or not? What types and levels of accountability does each stakeholder have? How to make accountability part of the design phase, and not a mere afterthought? What should be the role engineers and engineering managers? Where digital ecosystems are global, how to facilitate that, and who could cater for that? Who to invite at the table? How to leave nobody behind? These and other key topics are addressed in this Dialogue with Prof. Gong Ke, Immediate Past President, World Federation of Engineering Organizations (WFEO).

What does the Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics of the United Nations (UN) Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI) do? How can artificial intelligence and robotics improve fighting crime in this Digital Age? How to cater for future-proof law enforcement? What new and emerging technologies are visible on and envisioned over the horizon? How to use those responsibly? And how to minimize bias and other risks of using AI and other technological capabilities? What guidelines and good practices are provided or developed? Is accountability also one of the main principles and requirements? How to balance out the rule of law in this Digital Age to the ongoing technological developments, and make those future-proof? What are the reasons to be optimistic about the current and upcoming technological developments, and the future in general? These and other essential queries are explored in this Dialogue with Irakli Beridze

What is the difference between illegal hate speech, and legal hate speech? How free is the freedom of expression, and what are its thresholds? Can, and if so, how could technology help guarding these thresholds of what is freedom of expression, and what is not? How to arrange for more transparency by digital media platforms so their ways of acting or not acting to protect the freedom of expression can be monitored? What kind of transparency would one need, to cater for a higher level of accountability of the various stakeholders? How to arrange for that beyond national or regional jurisdictions, in a global perspective? What is the role of individuals and organisations? Are they aware and empowered sufficiently? These and other key topics are addressed in this Dialogue with Guilherme Canela, Chief of Section - Freedom of Expression and Journalist Safety

A dialogue Paul Nemitz, Principle Adviser on Justice Policy EU Commission

Why can technology not work without democracy and rule of law? What is the state of play regarding the rise power of technology, and related rise of economic power? How to control technological power? How to preserve our democracy and quality of life, and increase their resilience. Can rule of law compatible technology actually support such preservation? How to make engineers aware that what they build has (direct or indirect) adverse impact on democracy and the quality of life. How to make sure they understand their ethical and societal responsibility and accountability of what is built? How to raise the understanding of technology and related powers of politicians, civil servants and other policy making stakeholders? How to get more engineers and other science, technology and interdisciplinary knowledge onboard in those policy making domains? This Dialogue with Paul Nemitz dives into these and related important matters.

A dialogue with Prof Ali Hessami, VC & Process Architect, IEEE Ethics Certification Programme for Autonomous & Intelligent Systems at IEEE Standards Association. Ali discusses the a new IEEE global standard developed titled " P7000 - Model Process for Addressing Ethical Concerns During System Design" Furthermore his latest book on "Factoring Ethics in Technology Policy Making, Regulation and AI

What effect does the emergence of autonomy of machines have? What brings the ever-increasing level of non-human agency towards full autonomy. How is in charge? Are human dignity, societal values, fundamental rights and related ethical topics on the radar of engineers? Why is there a seemingly perpetual clash between engineering and ethics? How to help engineers addressing ethical concerns during system design, and further downstream? How to get from a purely technologic-centric to human-centric technology approach? When talking about ethics, how to get the multiple perspectives and angles in scope and deployed, also be demonstrate accountability in a Digital Age? This Dialogue with Prof Ali Hessami dives into these and related important matters.