On the 16th of July 2024, the IEAI together with Globethics hosted an event titled ‘International AI and Human Rights Summit: Developing a Munich Convention on AI and Human Rights’. The day was kicked off with a panel discussion moderated by Dr. Caitlin Corrigan, Executive Director of the TUM IEAI. The panelists were: His Excellency Prof. Muhammadou M. O. Kah (Ambassador of The Gambia to Switzerland), Sarah Hechler (United Nations Global Compact) and Prof. Marcello Ienca (TUM). Wallace Cheng (Globethics) and Prof. Christoph Lütge (TUM IEAI) provided keynote speeches.
Wallace Cheng began his keynote with a question to the audience: What is the greatest invention of humankind?”. Suggested answers included the wheel, the printing press and electricity, but Cheng revealed the greatest invention of humankind is human rights. In this sense, he impressed upon the audience three take-aways his wished to learn from the summit:
- How to operationalize existing human rights in the digital space.
- Can we foresee the new human rights issues in the age of AI?
- The rights to work and the right to community connection in the age of AI.
The greatest invention is human rights. – Wallace Cheng
The floor was then given to Prof. Christoph Lütge, who compared the landscape of AI ethics over the last five years. At the point of the IEAI’s inception in 2019, AI ethics were spoken about in more of a broad sense; the focus was on technology ethics. Now, in 2024, AI ethics has become more specialized and divided into smaller areas of focus, such as AI governance. Prof. Lütge then noted that there has been a momentous shift to a business ethics angle, explaining companies must convince people that they are trustworthy.
If you have AI without ethics, it will not work. People will not trust or use those systems. – Prof. Christoph Lütge
Dr. Caitlin Corrigan then called the three invited panelists forward to join her for the panelist discusion, with His Excellency Prof. Muhammadou M. O. Kah presenting first. Ambassador Kah began by praising the UN Human Rights Council and the General Assembly of the UN for taking the issues of human rights and AI seriously. Ambassador Kah stressed the importance of actors and agents to factor human rights in the deployment of AI tools and services. He noted this is no small feat, as the landscape of human rights and governance is a continuum, with new opportunities and challenges in an ever-changing landscape.
We must converge collectively to ensure that businesses and developers are more responsible and have human rights guidance in deploying this technology. – Ambassador Kah
Ambassador Kah continued, reminding the audience not to overlook the positive aspects of AI on human rights, such as its capability to enhance the protection and promotion of human rights, its ability to improve access to justice and streamline legal processes, its contributions to better healthcare delivery through early diagnostics and personlized treatment, etc. These positive contributions, Ambassador Kah cautioned, do not come without their challenges and gaps. Algorithm bias and discrimination have become more pressing issues, requiring policymakers to ensure fairness and non-discrimination. Data privacy and AI systems must ensure that data is used and stored in compliance with human rights standards, and there must be more transparency and accountability. Ambassador Kah closed with his wishes for the summit to be progressive and dynamic and urged not to ignore the centrality and importance of data, and to establish a clear human rights framework.
Following Ambassador Kah’s insightful talk, the next speaker, Prof. Marcello Ienca, took the floor. He highlighted the complex relationship between AI and human rights, noting it is not one-directional, but rather bi-directional.
The relationship between AI and human rights is a complex relationship. In particular, when we talk about human rights implications of AI, we implicitly refer to a dual meaning. – Prof. Marcello Ienca.
Moving on, Prof. Ienca stated AI is eminently a human rights issue and because of this, its governance must be a global governance. According to Prof. Ienca, this global governance is still facing dramatic imbalances in the way it is developed and governed worldwide. There are imbalances in the concentration of power where AI is developed and in the access of the benefits of AI technology.
Sarah Hechler then held the last presentation shifting the focus on companies. Hechler believes companies are the central factors in AI, as they are the implementing mechanisms. Here, she called attention to the issue of “the big gap”.
While we have amazing initiatives for regulation, we have no global approach. Even if we assume the AI Act to be the most progressive, it only covers a certain number of companies in a certain region. – Sarah Hechler
Currently, Hechler is working on a publication advocating for companies to be able to integrate AI into existing responsibilities if they are already currently conducting human rights risks analyses. Hechler ended, underscoring the importance of inclusion and building upon accepted and existing standards.
The morning concluded with a discussion on AI and human rights between the audience and the panelists.
The IEAI thanks Globethics for their support and the speakers and participants for making this an impactful event on AI and human rights.
The recording of the panel can be found here.
