Does AI Need Governance? Examining the Political Economy of Machine Learning
The Internet Governance Project (IGP) announces its 9th annual workshop, focused on the critical topic of AI governance and its implications for information and communications technology (ICT) policy. This year’s event will bring together a diverse group of thought leaders, researchers, and policymakers in Atlanta on October 17-18 to present and discuss cutting-edge analyses of AI governance issues.
Moving Beyond the “AI Doomer” Discourse
In recent years, the debate around AI has been dominated by a hyperbolic “doomer” narrative, exemplified by Nick Bostrom’s 2014 book “Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies.” However, IGP believes it’s time to move the conversation in a more informed and constructive direction. Our workshop will explore what it really means to “govern” machine learning, as “AI” applications are applications of computing power, data, networks and software. When we speak of “governing AI,” are we committing ourselves to governing any and every form of digital information and communications technology? Is the prospect of artificial general intelligence (AGI), which has animated so much of the governance discussion, real? What are the appropriate governance responses?
In his AI Superpowers, Kai-Fu Lee highlighted how the US and China’s competing AI economies led to social transformations and raised the geopolitical stakes. The US government has since sought to militarize AI development through export controls, bans on foreign AI apps like TikTok, and industrial policies. More recently, some have argued we need to “regulate compute” to provide an incumbent advantage for US firms while fulfilling the industrial policy mandates. At the same time, many AI firms are struggling to find their footing having made large investments in AI hardware while serious questions are being asked about overblown AI hype.
Key Themes and Questions
Our workshop will tackle many of these critical questions, including:
- How can we govern AI while maintaining the free flow of scientific knowledge, open trade in ICT devices and services, and competitive, bottom-up application development in a globalized market?
- What is the relationship between AI applications and freedom of expression, including issues like propaganda, disinformation, and content guardrails?
- How do we navigate the political economy of data as an input to AI applications, considering property rights, exclusion, fair use, and copyright?
- How should AI firms weigh the benefits of open source arrangements against data enclosures for a competitive advantage?
- What are the implications of AI capabilities for privacy and cybersecurity, and how can we ensure effective global or national governance?
- What can a comprehensive review of global regulatory and industrial policy initiatives in the EU, China, India, the US, and other blocks tell us about AI governance?
Preliminary Program
Thursday October 17
Session 3: Situating AI in the wider digital ecosystem: A systems approach to governance
- Dr. Milton Mueller, Georgia Institute of Technology, IGP Director; author of “The Myth of AGI: How the illusion of Artificial General Intelligence distorts and distracts digital governance“
- Viktor Mayer-Schonberger, Professor of Internet Governance and Regulation at Oxford University; author (with Urs Gasser) of Guardrails: Guiding Human Decisions in the Age of AI.
- Dr. Laura DeNardis, Professor and Endowed Chair in Technology, Ethics, and Society; Director of the Center for Digital Ethics; author of The Internet in Everything: Freedom and Security in a World with No Off Switch
Session 2: Controlling Compute and Models
- Dylan Patel, Chief Analyst at Semi-Analysis
- Lennart Heim, Associate Information Scientist, RAND Corp
- Dean Ball, Research Fellow, Mercatus Institute
Session 3: Is AGI a Myth?
- Dr. Milton Mueller, Ga Tech IGP
- Dr. Nirit Weiss-Blatt, communication researcher and author of “The TECHLASH and Tech Crisis Communication
- Andrew Strait, Associate Director, Ada Lovelace Center, UK
Session 4: AI applications and freedom of expression: propaganda, disinformation, and content guardrails
- Brenden Kuerbis, Research Scientist and Seungtae Han, Doctoral student, Ga Tech IGP
- Tarek Naous, Doctoral student, Georgia Tech Computer Science
- Clay Calvert, University of Florida Levin College of Law
Guided discussion: Identifying priorities for public policy
Friday October 18
Session 5: Comparative analysis of governance efforts.
- Andreas Kuehn, moderator
- Karine Perset, Head of AI Unit, OECD
- NTIA or NIST representative (invited)
- Sarah Box, Counsellor to the directors of the OECD Directorate for Science, Technology and Innovation
Session 6: The Geopolitics of AI governance
- Jinghan Zeng, Professor of China and International Studies at Lancaster University, UK; author of Artificial Intelligence with Chinese Characteristics: National Strategy, Security and Authoritarian Governance
- Jyoti Panday, Researcher and Regional Director, Ga Tech IGP
- Jason Luo, Doctoral student, Stanford University
Session 7: The political economy of data as an input to AI applications: property rights, exclusion, fair use and copyright
- Brenden Kuerbis, Research Scientist, Ga Tech IGP
- Deven Desai, Sue and John Staton Professorship in Business Law, Georgia Tech
- Dr. Mark Riedl, professor, Georgia Tech School of Interactive Computing and associate director of the Georgia Tech Machine Learning Center
Session 8: Guided discussion
Participate and Engage
Join us to explore the complex relationships between AI, international relations, and governance. We invite you to join us as a participant observer in person by registering for the in-person event, or register for the livestream to watch remotely.
