We have shaped a report describing results from an initiative to organize a community of researchers and innovators around a research program that seeks to create AI technologies that empower humans and human society to vastly improve quality of life for all. Read the deliverable.
The HumaneAI team has summarised the ideas and considerations that have emerged in the course of considering various ways to sustain and develop a large-scale Humane AI community in the absence of a Flagship. They are intended as recommendations for the funding bodies of the Union with respect to an efficient implementation of large-scale long-term research initiatives in AI and similar fields. Read the deliverable.
On October 10 and 11 the HumaneAI partners meet in Den Haag to create the Reseach Roadmap for the new science of Human Centric Artificial Intelligence.
On June 17 and 18 the HumaneAI partners designed and host five AI Research Labs aimed at generating greater awareness of the long-term implications of a human-centered research agenda in AI among researchers, but also aimed at crating input for policy leaders, both within and outside of the civil service. This series is supported through the 37 partners under the leadership of DFKI.
HumaneAI partner Jozef Stefan Institute with expert Marko Grobelnik has been involved in designing the OECD AI Principles which are the first such principles signed up to by governments and have been discussed also in the HumaneAI project.
On 22 May 2019 the OECD member countries approved the OECD Council Recommendation on Artificial Intelligence.
Beyond OECD members, other countries including Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Peru and Romania have already adhered to the AI Principles, with further adherents welcomed. Ministerial Meeting the AI Principles.
Relevant is the fact that this is the first AI document as a result of a political consensus among 36 OECD members and 5 non-member countries.
HumaneAI partner Virginia Dignum from Umeå University is co-chairing a session at AI for Good Summit this week to discuss the similarities and differences of different guidelines (IEEE, EAD, EU and OECD) and the potential issues of having alternative proposals for guidelines, together with representatives from the groups who created the guidelines and several ‘users’ from across the world, including Europe, China, Africa and Caribean. Please join us on Friday 31st if you are in Geneva for AI for Good.
HumaneAI partners are attending the match-making brokerage day on 28 May 2019 in Brussels for the call on European Network of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Excellence Centres. Besides the presentation from the European Commission on information needed to participate in the call for proposals, we will be activelly looking for networking opportunities with representatives of other institutions and Excellence Centers. We are planning to setup a Network to mobilise the best research teams and the most prominent experts in the field and join forces to tackle more efficiently the Human Centric, Ethical, and European AI.
Join us in Brussels!
Over the past few months, Knowledge 4 All Foundation, a key partner in the HumaneAI project and the Artificial Intelligence for Development (AI4D) initiative to advance AI in the Global South, partnered with Oxford Insights, an international public sector consultancy specialising in AI, and IDRC which prepared the second edition of the Government AI Readiness Index.
Western Europe dominates the top 20 places of the 2019 Government AI Readiness Index, as might be expected due to the strong economies of the majority of Western European nations. 11 of the top 20 governments in the rankings are Western European, with the top ranking government among this group being the UK (second globally), followed by Germany (third), and interestingly Finland (fifth) and Sweden (sixth), demonstrating that AI readiness is not necessarily exclusively dictated by economic might. Larger economies, such as France and Italy, lagged behind in eighth and fifteenth places respectively. The report also covers the Eastern European region.
The Index measures governments’ readiness for implementing AI in their internal operations and in public service delivery. It builds on the methodology that combines 11 input metrics to produce a composite score for OECD governments, grouped under four high-level clusters: governance; infrastructure and data; skills and education; and government and public services. The data is derived from a variety of resources.
This year’s index is more globally represented and expanded the scope to cover all UN countries. Having calculated scores for all 194 governments included in the report, we invited experts from each region to contribute commentary to help bring our findings to life with their insights and local knowledge.
References: Hannah Miller, Oxford Insight, attribution by AI4D, CC-BY 2.0., https://ai4d.ai/2019-government-ai-readiness-index/
The representatives of the HumaneAI project had a meeting with Khalil Rouhana, Deputy Director-General in DG CONNECT and his team to present the projects ambition to match the European Commissions’ vision of Human Centric, Ethical, and European AI. HumaneAI is a consortium of 35 partners from 17 countries, with the know-how and a plan to immediately start doing R&D towards that vision.
The Humane AI kick-off meeting was held on 11 April 2019 at the CINIQ center in Berlin with all partners attending.
Humane AI, with project number 761758, is funded under the topic “FET FLAGSHIPS – Tackling grand interdisciplinary science and technology challenges” of European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.
The focus is on human-centered AI, with a strong emphasis on ethics, values by design, and appropriate consideration of related legal and social issues. The HumanE AI project will mobilize a research landscape far beyond the direct project funding and create a unique innovation ecosystem that offers substantial return on investment. It will result in significant disruption across its socio-economic impact areas, including Industry 4.0, health & well-being, mobility, education, policy and finance. It will spearhead the efforts required to help Europe achieve a step-change in AI uptake across the economy.
The consortium with 35 partners from 17 countries, including four large industrial members, has defined further steps to implement a full research agenda in Human oriented AI and a strategy to mobilize major scientific, industrial, political and public support for this vision.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 952026.