IGF 2023 Town Hall #154 What place for Human RIghts in AI? a cybersecurity use case

In a Town-hall fashion, the session aims at discussing the place of Human Rights in AI starting from a cybersecurity use case. The discussion is very active around the world. In Europe, the EU Commission presented its draft regulation of AI on April 21, 2021 trying to tackle social scoring, use of biometric identification and surveillance technologies. We can also mention UNESCO’ recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence, OECD AI Observatory, the National AI Initiative Act, etc. At the same time, research on artificial intelligence and its applications are developing, making the implementation of fundamental rights difficult and current regulations incomplete. In this context, it is paramount to ensure the collaboration between stakeholders and to evaluate the impact of such technologies on society: prohibiting certain uses of AI in particular, biometric identification of people in publicly accessible spaces, risks of discrimination (e.g. gender, stereotypes, membership of a group) and effective impact assessment.

This townhall aims at fostering discussion starting with icebreaker questions with a focus on a cybersecurity use case:
- How to embed ethics and human rights by design in new cybersurveillance and facial recognition tools?
- How to tackle the challenge of self learning algorithms (unsupervised or supervised learning, cybersecurity use case: surveillance and warfare)?
- How to foster International cooperation: current discussion on the Global digital compact shows the importance of good governance for AI technologies
- What role should National Human Rights Institutions and Watchdogs could play in that context?


This townhall session aims at fostering collaboration and active discussion between stakeholders both online and onsite in order to hear the community’s views.

We will be sharing ahead of time the key starter questions in order to prepare flash pitch and start the discussion.

We will use additional tools such as Slido to facilitate the discussion and audience interaction in particular to facilitate a townhall setting involving the participants both onsite in Japan and remotely connected: live polls, flash surveys, trivia.
The organizers will also actively promote the session and reference documents will be communicated ahead of time including the 2022 report of the French Human Rights Commission, OECD, UNESCO work, as well as and a few policy papers from civil society and academics on the cybersecurity use cases.