On behalf of the Global Digital Justice Forum, Merrin Muhammed Ashraf (IT for Change) submitted inputs to the Co-facilitators of Global Digital Compact for the Deep Dive Consultation on Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technologies that was held on 25 May, 2023.

 

This consultation focused on answering the following questions:

 

The input stressed on the need to expand the discourse beyond ethical AI, and seriously address the concentration of economic and political power and entrenchment of social inequities that marks the design and deployment of AI systems. The current Intellectual Proprty (IP) regimes exacerbate the technological capabilities between countries, which consequently impedes the development of AI for public and social ends.

 

In terms of actions to be taken at the multilateral level, the input recommended that the design, development, and use of AI should be guided by the precautionary principle, and that the social value of AI should accrue to communities whose data is used. Achieving this requires reforming the current IP regimes, bridging the AI divide between nations through international public financing initiatives, rejecting digital trade rules that prevents nation-states from enforcing transparency and accountability requirements on AI system, evolving binding standards at the global level to guide future trajectories of AI design, development, and use, and  adopting binding regulations on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems and a global ban on non-human control of nuclear weapons platform launches.