DOC: ai_panel_and_dialogue_zero_draft 19_march_2025
First of all, let me express my gratitude to co-facilitators / Gracias a los embajadores d’Espana y Costa Rica / for the zero draft and for this meeting and, I hope, also for the fruitful exchanges that will follow.
I take the floor here today, in my capacity of Secretary General of Eurovisioni, which is a pan European think-tank on the future of media based in Rome. We are following the impact of A.I. on the media ecosystem since some years and we were among the NGO’s invited at the Summit of the Future in New York.
Zero draft is, for us, a solid and good point of departure for the discussion. The general consideration is that is needed an holistic and global approach, that takes in account what already exists and is accomplished by other existing bodies, UN agencies, international structures and organizations. There is not a need for a new structure that starts from scratch, but more of a coordinating work of the multiple experiences that already exist. In particular, in the frame of the GDC implementation we need to avoid duplications of already successful experiences such as IGF and WSIS+20 follow up. On the contrary, there is a need to design a new integrate architecture, in which all of these experiences could find their role and work in synergy, with the Expert Panel focusing mainly on missing elements and on the integration of the various pieces of the puzzle.
Going more in details, here there are some comments to the “0 draft” document Point 12: The process of implementation of the GDC in general, and in specific, the process to build the A.I. panel, needs to follow a multistakeholders’ approach, as defined in the Netmundial+10 principles. Cannot be only a process only decided by governments, because its implications are too pervasive for society and for the economy, that cannot be left only in the hands of governments. Point 15: Plenary meeting – High Level meeting is a very good idea, but such summit cannot be only a “red carpet event”, but has to be also and prevalently the occasion for launching/approving some principles on A.I. regulation. Point 16: keep the meetings of the group not only beside UN GA events, but also in the frame of in coordination with other existing initiatives. The meetings of the panel (once a year risks not to be enough, especially in this starting phase) have to be arranged beside meetings of the other existing
initiatives where the future of the governance of the Internet is discussed. Not only those mentioned above (UN lead processes), but also beside other non-UN processes (such as OECD, Council of Europe, G20, etc.) that are already dealing with the same issues.
Point 21: secretariat
The concept of Secretariat has to be innovative and more than working in a high walled castle, needs to build a permanent and interactive coordination among the various initiatives that already exist, in order to put in value the competences existing elsewhere, without need to “reinvent the wheel” within the Scientific Panel
There are already a lot of specialized fora in cybersecurity, on Internet Governance as the IGF, on ethical issues such as UNESCO, or A.I. summits such as the one in London and in Paris, the efforts made by European Union with the A.i. act. , by OECD, by CoE. Each one of them is specialized in certain areas of competences, and could contribute to the work of the UN Expert Group based on specific missions that could be asked by the UN Scientific Panel.
Welcome Point 14:
We support very much the will –expressed in the zero draft- to build a universal A.I. compliant with the need to preserve linguistic and cultural diversity and to support human rights. But we expect that next drafts will be more detailed and will include other specific missions, such as , for instance, to counter Disinformation.
We understand that draft zero is not entering in the scope of the mission of the ExperScientific panel, and this probably will come later. But we need to be sure that the scope will encompass all the various needs, because A.I. is not a tool, but a revolution that will go across all sectors, all kind of human experience.
We need to be sure that:
– Impact on Creative economy will be in the list as mentioned by other participants to this first hearing oApart of the work of screenwriters, musicians, journalists, actors, artists what is at stake is thewhole capacity to express local culture and languages that is at risk;
– Information disorder : the impact of A.I. on media and on the information of citizens, building on the proposals of the G20 in Rio about information integrity;
– Prevention of harm to elections, building on the successful experience of EE24 test during last year’s European elections ;
– A.I. for prevention of disasters, because we shall have to face more and more difficult crisis in the years to come. The Paris A.I. summit document dedicated to crisis provoked by the climate change is a first good step in this direction and need to be further developed by the Scientific Panel;
– EW4All – the UN plan to provide early warning for all needs desperately that A.I. will focus in this area, that probably is not very remunerating but can save thousands of lives;
– Sustainable Development of A.I. infrastructure needs to be ensured and prescribed, because it’s not acceptable that –in order to promote digitalization for all- we forget to comply with the sustainability obligations and to comply with Paris’ agreements obligations;
Finally, Interoperability of A.I. and the regulation of “Dual use” are two other very slippery issues where the guidance of the UN expert panel is absolutely needed.
NB: This is a version of the speech more complete of the one pronounced during the consultation. Eurovisioni remains at the full disposal of the facilitators in case more details and information could be useful. For more in deep suggestions, you’ll find here below the link to the conclusions of the seminar held in February 2024 at the European Parliament in Brussels on”: HOW ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IS DEEPLY CHANGING THE ARTISTIC, CULTURAL, CREATIVE AND MEDIA SECTOR | EUROVISIONI