FEBRUARY 2021

Spotlight on Myanmar, Arab Spring, impact of AI on civil conflicts and violence, “Orwellian” AI and more

For more resources on Technology, Bias, and Racial Justice look at our

Special Edition Newsletter

curated by 

Amanda Luz, Jeremy Pineda, Loren Crone, Stephanie Hilton

AI FOR PEACE BLOG POSTS  

Child Development and Protection in the Digital Age, by Venera Urbaeva

Proliferation of emerging technologies in recent decades has meant that children and adolescents are more exposed to digital technologies than ever before. This includes access to mobile devices, social media platforms, online chats, video gaming, robotic assistive technologies for children with autism, and the overall revamp of online education as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Today’s children are the new generation that is growing up in an age of digital technology with minimal or no regulatory frameworks in place to ensure their safety, integrity, and holistic development. This article reviews the definitions for children and artificial intelligence and explores ways children can be protected and can benefit from interaction with the digital landscape and artificial intelligence.

Read more here.

Promise of New Technologies against the Peril of Racial Bias, by Amanda Luz, Jeremy Pineda, Loren Crone, Stephanie Hilton

…With the increased adoption of artificial intelligence and new technologies for analyzing humans, we would like to introduce the discussion about 1) what we should know about this topic, 2) what are the concerns about the biases in new technologies, and 3) how to propose creative openings that can be taken by civil society and governments to pressure for more accountable and equitable AI…

Read more here.

THIS MONTH’S BEST READS 

Technology and solidarity won’t save Myanmar’s protesters, Rest of World, 18 February 2021

“Governments have significant advantages in the tools they can use,” said Raman Jit Singh Chima, Asia-Pacific policy director at Access Now, a global digital rights campaign group. “You have to remember that no tech is hack-proof, no mechanism is completely secure. Everything has insecurity built in. Any mobilization or campaigning or expression of your democratic rights should go with the assumption that technology … can be insecure.”

The social media myth about the Arab Spring, Al Jazeera, 27 January 2021

During the early days of the Arab uprisings, when many activists were using Facebook and Twitter to organise and amplify their demands, the social media giants seized the opportunity to brand themselves as platforms for political activism and resistance. To this day, numerous media outlets run the claim that “social media made the Arab Spring” and that it was a “Facebook revolution”. But social scientists have repeatedly busted this myth and have offered critical readings of the role these tech companies have played in the political unrest in Tunisia, Egypt, and other Arab countries.

Can Computer Algorithms Learn to Fight Wars Ethically, The Washington Post Magazine, 17 February 2021

Maybe the autonomous weapons being developed by the Pentagon will be better than humans at making moral decisions. Or maybe they’ll be a nightmare come to life.

Europe’s vain attempt to monitor migration routes at sea, Engineering and Technology, 5 February 2021

Dangerous migration routes across the Mediterranean Sea are getting busier again. The EU wants to use drone technology to monitor them better. Will it work? There are some doubts, taking into account the ethical and technical challenges involved.

‘Orwellian’ AI lie detector project challenged in EU court, TechCrunch, 5 February 2021

“The EU keeps having dangerous surveillance and control technology developed, and will even fund weapons research in the future, I hope for a landmark ruling that will allow public scrutiny and debate on unethical publicly funded research in the service of private profit interests”, said Breyer in a statement following today’s hearing. “With my transparency lawsuit, I want the court to rule once and for all that taxpayers, scientists, media and Members of Parliament have a right to information on publicly funded research — especially in the case of pseudoscientific and Orwellian technology such as the ‘iBorderCtrl video lie detector’.”

The World Needs Democratic AI Principles, The Diplomat, 26 February 2021

Artificial intelligence (AI) encompasses a nearly limitless set of possibilities and the rapid integration of AI into every facet of human life offers great promise. It is also a disruptive force that threatens to destabilize the global balance of power and the foundational principles of democracy itself.

THIS MONTH’S PUBLICATIONS

Digital Technologies and Civil Conflicts, European Union Institute for Security Studies, 19 February 2021.

Most attention relating to digital technologies and conflict has focused on cyber or information operations between states. Yet, it is civil conflicts that have increased in number and become more protracted over the past decade due to a number of factors, including their increasingly internationalised character. Moreover, it is in these contexts that societies are more vulnerable and likely to be more affected by the misuse of digital technologies; and it is in these contexts that states show less restraint in their behaviour and can cause more harm to civilians. Mediating or facilitating a solution to civil conflicts, already an enormously difficult task, is compounded by the ways in which numerous actors use digital technologies to disrupt or delay conflict resolution efforts. For mediators and others engaged in peacemaking efforts, understanding these challenges is critical to designing already charged engagement strategies.

Countries at Risk for Mass Killings 2020-21: Early Warning Project Statistical Risk Assessment Results, Early Warning Project, 10 Dec 2020

Genocide and related crimes against humanity are devastating in their scale and scope; in the enduring scars for survivors and their families and the long-term trauma they cause in societies; and in the economic, political, and social costs and consequences, often extending far beyond the territory in which they were committed. Working to prevent future genocides requires an understanding of how these events occur, including considerations about warning signs and human behaviors that make genocide and mass atrocities possible. This assessment identifies the risk—the possibility—that a mass killing may take place. On average, one or two countries experience a new episode of mass killing each year. But relative infrequency does not make the brutality less devastating for victims: a mass killing, by our definition, is 1,000 or more civilians deliberately killed by armed forces (whether government or non-state), over a period of a year or less, because of their membership in a particular group. Virtually all cases of genocide include mass killings that meet this definition.

Cyber-AI Convergence and Interference, Foundation Office of New York

Far beyond what was conceived through traditional security and military doctrines, we face new challenges that pertain to human and political security. What matters is not only who wins new territories, but who wins the data, the trust, the hearts and minds of citizens within a country or polity.

Report: Improving Social Media: The People, Organizations and Ideas for a Better Tech Future, The Bridge

The report includes 100 collaborators and over 40 interviews, ranging from Big Tech to advocates to those reimagining social media. It is an ambitious project suggesting ways for transitioning from a reactive to proactive approach toward tackling social media concerns. The report emphasizes a holistic, collective method that considers the roles of platforms, users, policymakers, news media, tech workers, advertisers, funders, and the Knowledge Base that supports the entire ecosystem.

AI Verification: Mechanisms to Ensure AI Arms Control Compliance, CSET, February 2021

The rapid integration of artificial intelligence into military systems raises critical questions of ethics, design and safety. While many states and organizations have called for some form of “AI arms control,” few have discussed the technical details of verifying countries’ compliance with these regulations. This brief offers a starting point, defining the goals of “AI verification” and proposing several mechanisms to support arms inspections and continuous verification.

ICYMI

Digital analysis: Peacemaking potential and promise, Conciliation Resources, September 2020

This article discusses how peace organisations can use digital technologies to inform planning and process design at the pre-formal or early stages of peace processes. It outlines three key advantages of digital analysis: to mitigate risk and reduce costs of data collection; to increase diversity of data sources; and to enhance the ownership of analysis and make it an integral part of the dialogue effort. The article further explains how advances in digital analysis can help collect data on relationships between groups, which is essential for understanding conflict dynamics and for mapping peace pathways. This potential of digital technologies is balanced by discussion of three key challenges: using digital data to understand both online and offline worlds; maintaining or enhancing meaningful participation in data collection and analysis; and keeping peace support actors engaged with increasingly automated data analysis processes.

THIS MONTH’S WEBINARS 

Measurementality: Children's Data, Sustainable Development and Peace

Date: 25 February @ 12:00 PM ET - 1:00 PM ET

If we don't honor how we measure and protect children's data or take measures of the environment, we have no sustainable future. Join host John C. Havens from IEEE SA as he interviews Sandy Pentland of MIT, Baroness Beeban Kidron of the 5Rights Foundation, and Branka Panic, Founder of AI for Peace in our latest installment of Measurementality.  Focusing on the key goal of our series, "defining what counts in the algorithmic age," guests will discuss issues like data privacy for children, data agency for all, and how metrics like the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and other human rights oriented metrics are being utilized in the design of Artificial Intelligence Systems (AIS).

Improving Social Media: Misinformation & Free Expression, The Bridge, 25 February 2021

Our information ecosystem is related to the health of our democracy. How can we reduce misinformation and disinformation on social media platforms while also ensuring that platforms promote the free exchange of ideas? Join our highly-interactive livestream conversation with two leading experts in the field. We will be joined by Dr. Jasmine McNealy, Associate Professor of Telecommunication at the University of Florida, Harvard Berkman Klein Center affiliate, media & law expert, and Dr. Claire Wardle, Co-founder and director of First Draft, leading expert on user generated content, verification and misinformation.

Data 4 Peace Monthly Dialogue: What a War Crime Looks Like from Space, Center on International Cooperation at NYU, 24 February 2021.

Today, not only governments, but also international human rights organizations, civil society and individuals have an abundance of observation data available to use. Although an immense opportunity, this abundance can be a burden to go through and process in a timely manner. Hence, we are asking how and if new advanced approaches such as deep learning and neural networks can help a human eye to tell the difference between smoke plumes and clouds, or distinguish natural fires from burned villages? What is a potential in combining high-quality satellite imagery, deep learning, and other recent advances in computer science that have transformed how we extract information from images?

THIS MONTH’S PODCASTS

Australia vs. Facebook & Free Speech in the Digital Age, The Sunday Show, 21 February 2021.

First, we discuss Facebook’s response to an Australian law that would compel search and social media platforms to pay news organizations for linking to their content with guest Chris Zappone, Digital Foreign Editor at Australia’s The Age and Sydney Morning Herald. Second, we listen in on a panel discussion on free speech in the digital age hosted by Betaworks Studios as part of its Betalab: Fix The Internet program. Moderated by Betalab Researcher-in-Residence Yaël Eisenstat, includes David Kaye, a clinical professor of law at the University of California, Irvine and former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, along with Nora Benavidez the director of U.S. Free Expression Programs at PEN America.

PRIO’S Peace in a Pod - Coup in Myanmar: Protest, Art, Technology, PRIO, 10 February 2021

On the morning of February 1, Myanmar awoke to a shock: the military had deposed the democratically elected party, the National League for Democracy. Leader Aung San Su Kyii is under arrest, and as citizens have taken to the streets and social media to express their emphatic dissent, police have begun ramping up the force used against protestors. The country has a long and complicated history of protests, coups, and fights for control. To understand this latest development, three PRIO researchers. Marte Nilsen, Trude Stapnes, and Stein Tønnesson, share a multi-faceted look at the situation.

EVENTS IN MARCH

Social media and conflict analysis, March 9, 2021

Krystel Tabel and Mira El Mawla discuss social media listening and answer questions from their recent blog post: 'Take back the analysis: Five things you can actually learn about a conflict context from social media.

Does AI Pose an Existential Threat to Humanity? Cornell Tech, 4 March 2021.

DLI's inaugural debate was inspired by thinking through the provocations posed by the impact of ‘intelligent’ technologies on the future of human life. Will robots take over the planet? Will they undermine or erode what it means to be human in other more subtle or unanticipated ways? Is the preoccupation with intelligent machines a red herring? Or is the biggest threat posed by intelligent machines the affordances they provide to the humans who wield them? Stanford Provost Emeritus and Co-director of the Institute for Human-Centered AI, John Etchemendy, will moderate as two talented teams of DLI members, captained by Salomé Viljoen and Meg Young, thrash out the pros and cons of AI in the digital age.

Intelligence Augmentation: AI Empowering People to Solve Global Challenges, Stanford University, 25 March 2021.

Artificial intelligence is poised to change every sector of the economy. How do we ensure that this technology will augment, not replace, humans? During HAI’s 2021 spring conference, scholars and industry professionals in the fields of healthcare, education, art, and others will discuss how AI technology can best support humans as they approach these critical global challenges.

MKAI Technical Forum – AI and Environmental Sustainability: Part 3 AI For Smarter Energy Management, MKAI, 24 March 2021.

At the MKAI technical forum in March, we seek to discover the Artificial Intelligence (AI) research and projects that are producing practical solutions for the Smart Grid. A new generation of energy networks will be able to make efficient use of renewable energy sources, support real-time and efficient demand response, as well as the large-scale deployment of electric vehicles (EVs). We will learn more about the AI techniques and methodologies that will increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the way we manage and allocate energy.

Online Library 

On our website, AI for Peace, you can find even more awesome content, podcasts, articles, white papers and book suggestions that can help you navigate through AI and peace fields. Check our online library!