Do we need a humanitarian manifesto for AI? Join CDAC Network at the Alan Turing Institute’s AI UK Fringe
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When: 18 March 2024 at 15:00–17:00 GMT
Where: Frontline Club (13 Norfolk Place, London W2 1QJ). Online participation also welcomed
Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing the nature of crisis and humanitarian responses. With more people in need of humanitarian assistance today than any other time in history, algorithmic and data-driven responses are enabling greater reach and cost efficiency. However, they are also raising questions about the ethics and safety of this ‘datafication’ of crisis-affected communities by tech companies and humanitarian responders.
With AI governance and regulation being hotly debated and poised to shape global aid dynamics, there is a growing call for crisis-affected communities – often the most disproportionately impacted by AI – to have a voice in debates and a seat at the decision-making table.
How could this opportunity be seized to do things better, disrupting power imbalances instead of further entrenching them? What values should be infused in AI governance for the humanitarian system and the world at large?
In this session at the Alan Turing Institute's AI UK Fringe, a panel of visionaries and provocateurs will discuss whether a humanitarian manifesto for AI is needed and, if so, what values it could embody. How could it be developed in a way that is genuinely participatory and informed by consultations with communities? The event will also explore what ceding power and making space for currently absent voices of crisis-affected people would involve, given the highly contested and crowded AI race that’s underway.
Speakers
Keynote: Abeba Birhane
Abeba Birhane is an Ethiopian-born cognitive scientist who works at the intersection of complex adaptive systems, machine learning, algorithmic bias and critical race studies. Currently a Senior Advisor in AI Accountability at Mozilla Foundation and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the School of Computer Science and Statistics at Trinity College Dublin, she has been featured in Wired UK and TIME100 Most Influential People in AI.
Panel discussion
Billy Perrigo – Tech Correspondent, TIME magazine
Foni Joyce Vuni – Lead Researcher, Refugee-Led Research Hub Nairobi
Sarah Spencer – Independent Expert on AI for Good
Stella Suge – Executive Director, FilmAid Kenya
Moderator: Helen McElhinney – Executive Director, CDAC Network