The Policy Network on Artificial Intelligence (PNAI) emerged at a request of the community following the discussions held at the 17th annual IGF meeting in Addis Ababa and its main session on Addressing Advanced Technologies, including Artificial Intelligence. The Addis Ababa IGF Messages conclude that the “IGF could be used as a platform for developing cooperation mechanisms on artificial intelligence. A policy network on artificial intelligence could be considered for the upcoming work streams in order to review the implementation of different principles with appropriate tools and metrics.”
Over the past years, the IGF has discussed various aspects of Artificial Intelligence and related aspects of data governance, such as AI use by social media platforms and content moderation, dangers such as manipulation, deception and mis- and disinformation, transparency needs in the operation and reporting of algorithmic systems, and necessary principles of rule of law, human rights, democratic values and diversity in the governance of AI.
Similarly, there are a plethora of AI governance frameworks and this work will help distill policy approaches and recommendations. However, the vast majority of these have been developed in the Global North and in English or in other latinate languages. Therefore this PN will explicitly seek to learn from and elevate AI governance frameworks, principles and policies being developed in and for the Majority World and non-latinate languages.
PNAI Objective
This Policy Network aims to build on these previous discussions, policies, and the breadth of knowledge on this topic in the IGF community, and frame it into a systematic approach and framework that could be the base of focused conversations. Its specific focus is Artificial Intelligence and related aspects of data governance.
The work aims to bring the IGF’s multistakeholder community together in giving input on the subject matter including regarding the implementation of the UN Secretary-General's Our Common Agenda Report which explicitly calls for the input and advice of the multistakeholder community on addressing advanced technologies, including Artificial Intelligence, with the view of incorporating such advice and input in a Global Digital Compact to be agreed at the Summit of the Future in 2024. The IGF Policy Network will act as a forum to collect, analyze and share the community’s input and proposals in this process.
Among the planned deliverables are:
- A report to be presented at the IGF 2023 Annual Meeting on Artificial Intelligence and related aspects of data governance (such as principles and rules aiming at avoiding bias (gender, ethnicity, class, etc.) in the data sets used to train the AI systems; (2) principles and rules on how the data sets are governed by the community and/or what degree of control is attributed to the citizens... (3) related cross-border issues, etc.).
The report would expand on the framework proposed above, bolstered by collected case studies and their analysis highlighting tangible impacts with special invitation to expert colleagues from the world to join. It will include specificities on gender that will consider the binary conceptions of AI systems, gender identities and the issue of recognition as well as address under-resourced digital languages and the relevance to AI governance policy. It will also look at the issues from the Global South Perspective. - A document compiling and recommending best practice ethical principles and respectful practices to be considered when creating and using AI applications.
- Awareness-raising webinars: a series of webinars for the IGF community, to raise awareness of specific aspects of AI policy, to foster discussion and encourage input.
Working methodology
The PNAI work is open to everyone to participate and contribute. Stakeholders are invited to subscribe to the PNAI mailing list through which all work-related communication is channeled.
Everyone is welcome to participate in activities of the PNAI Multistakeholder Working Group in guiding the PNAI work.
In support of 