december, 2020

11dec14:0015:30AI for the Public or Common Good14:00 - 15:30

Time

(Friday) 14:00 - 15:30

Location

Zoom Virtual Debate

Event Details

Description

The Covid19 pandemic demonstrates the power, benefits and need for AI and Data to serve the public at large. It is now clear to all that the current crisis will accelerate digital transformation and more specifically the impact of AI & Data driven technologies: this to all our personal activities and society as a whole. Of course, positive aspects of AI and Data are clear most of the times. But the concerns and risks as expressed the last years are the same as before the pandemic... These concerns always start by putting our individual values and rights at the center. Putting our democracy as a starting point of innovation. How can we make sure personal data are secured, individuals can keep control of want their data are being used for and to what benefit and for whom? Are we now finally entereing the world of a new economic paradigm? The European perspective is that we need Human-Centric AI solutions for our economic “relance” and growth, that these technologies need to support SDG’s, provide e.g. quality care, especially to our aging population and solve many societal challenges. But how will this work?

In this session we debate the translation of AI for Good from the application and impact perspective: how AI can serve the Public or Common Good, how it will impact AI research with an emphasis on value driven innovation, starting from fundamental democratic values like “equality”, “freedom” and “fraternity”. And what does that mean when implementing such innovations, creating applications and services for the public interest? What role do Governments, Public Administrations play? What can be the role of Open Data and Open Science in all of this? And last but not least, how to involve of the public, social communities, in this process?

This session brings several concrete initiatives and frameworks to the table to show how Trustworthy AI & Data applications can create an impact for society that lasts.

In order to participate please register here. 

Organizer

Conference Session in cooperation with The AI Experience Centre, VUB

Host

Hosting MEPs

Anna-Michelle Asimakopoulou, MEP, EPP, Greece

Brando Benifei, MEP, Member of the K4I Forum, S&D, Italy

Victor Negrescu, MEP, Member of the K4I Forum, S&D, Romania

Speakers for this event

  • Anna Michelle Asimakopoulou

    Anna Michelle Asimakopoulou

    Member of the European Parliament, EPP, Greece

    Anna Michelle Asimakopoulou has studied economics and law in the USA and in the UK and worked for several years as a lawyer in New York, specializing in financial transactions and international banking law. She worked as director of an NGO in Greece, focusing on ICT deployment and regional development. She also worked as an evaluator of projects funded by the European Commission and as a consultant in the private sector in Brussels and Luxembourg. She served as Deputy-Mayor of the City of Ioannina (2010-2012) and an elected member of the Hellenic Parliament (2012-2019). She was appointed Spokesperson of the New Democracy Party in 2013. She was Head of Fiscal Policy Sector (2015), Head of the Development and Competition Sector (2016) and Head of the Digital Policy, Telecommunications & Media Sector for New Democracy (2016-2019). She is currently a Member of the European Parliament and Vice Chair of the Committee on International Trade.

    Member of the European Parliament, EPP, Greece

  • Brando Benifei

    Brando Benifei

    Member of the European Parliament

    Brando Benifei, European Federalist, is from La Spezia, Italy, and is the Head of Delegation of the Italian S&D MEPs. His main areas of work are Internal Market and Consumers Protection, Employment and Social Affairs, and Constitutional Affairs. He is rapporteur for the Single Market Program and shadow rapporteur for the European Social Fund Plus. He is active on youth policies, digitalisation and rights of persons with disabilities. In the previous term, he was responsible for the European Solidarity Corps, for the Post-Arab Spring in the MENA region and for key reports on the social inclusion and integration of refugees into the EU labour market, as well as youth employment policy such as the Youth Guarantee and the Youth Employment Initiative. He was also co-chair of the Youth Intergroup and vice-chair of the Disability Intergroup. In 2018, he received the MEP Award for his work on Employment and Social Affairs issues, for his work on youth unemployment. In 2016, Forbes included him in its annual 30 under-30 most influential in EU Politics list.

    Member of the European Parliament

  • Carl Mörch

    Carl Mörch

    Co-manager AI Institute for Common Good, ULB-VUB

    Carl Mörch, M.Psy., Ph.D., is co-manager of the Brussels AI Institute for Common Good (ULB-VUB). He was in 2020-2021 a researcher at the Université de Montréal and Mila – Québec artificial Intelligence Institute (Algora Lab) in AI Ethics. He was awarded a fellowship by the International Observatory on the Societal Impacts of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Technologies (OBVIA) in 2020. He is also a lecturer and adjunct professor at UQÀM (Montréal, Canada). His is interested in the concrete application of high-level ethical principles into applied domains, and in the responsible development of technologies in society. He recently published the Canada Protocol (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0933365719312436), an ethical checklist for AI developers working on Mental Health.

    Co-manager AI Institute for Common Good, ULB-VUB

  • Frederic Pivetta

    Frederic Pivetta

    Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Dalberg Data Insights

    Frédéric Pivetta is the Founder and Managing Partner at Dalberg Data Insights (DDI). Frederic is active over the last 8 years in the context of data for development where he has collaborated with major funders and local end-users and stakeholders. DDI is part of the Dalberg Group, which has offices in 25 countries. DDI focuses on developing data ecosystems aiming at social impact, Big Data approaches, tools, platforms and capacity building. Ultimately, the goal is to create economic value and social impact. For instance, DDI has developed a Big Data platform sourcing data from both the public and private sectors to help the World Bank, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and many others on topics such as public health (Ebola, malaria, zika), gender gap, financial inclusion, agritech, poverty etc. Before that, Frédéric was a co-founder of Real Impact Analytics (now Riaktr), which develops Big Data tools for telecom operators. He founded the Data-for-Good entity from RIA. Frédéric is on the Board of Accountable (fintech) and the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data (Big Data for SDGs, as part of the UN). Frédéric has been working 8 years at McKinsey & Company, where he was senior Engagement Manager. Frederic holds a PhD in Economics from Harvard University and has graduated in Business Economics and in Econometrics from Brussels University (ULB and Solvay Business School).

    Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Dalberg Data Insights

  • Hans De Canck

    Hans De Canck

    Manager - AI Experience Centre / AI for the Common Good

    Hans De Canck has a solid background in digital research and innovation management, working at universities and RTO’s (iMinds, imec, VITO). He manages and directs the development of the AI Experience Centre of the Vrije Universiteit Brussels (VUB) as well as the Brussels AI for the Common Good initiative. The AI Experience Center is a state of the art Digital Innovation Hub and is host of the Belgian CLAIRE offices in Brussels. Several research centers from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel have joined forces to develop a multi-disciplinary research and Innovation offering on AI, Data and Robotics towards Academia, Industry, Policy makers including the broader public. The AI Experience Centre accelerates this offering. Hans works with the research teams across the university and acts as coordinating manager for the AI for the Common Good initiative, launched by rector Caroline Pauwels in 2019.

    Manager - AI Experience Centre / AI for the Common Good

  • Stefaan Verhulst

    Stefaan Verhulst

    Co-Founder, Chief of Research and Development, TheGovLab – NYU - New York

    Stefaan G. Verhulst is Co-Founder and Chief Research and Development Officer of the Governance Laboratory (The GovLab) at New York University (NYU) - an action research center focused on improving governance using advances in science and technology - including data and collective intelligence. He is also, among other positions and affiliation, the Editor-in-Chief of Data & Policy, an open access journal by Cambridge University Press; the research director of the MacArthur Research Network on Opening Governance; Chair of the Data for Children Collaborative with Unicef; and a member of the High-Level Expert Group to the European Commission on Business-to-Government Data Sharing. He is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), Yale University, Central European University and serves on numerous (advisory) boards, including Sparks and Honey, Center for Media, Data and Society, among others. He is also Founder and Curator in Chief of The Living Library. In 2018 he was recognized as one of the 10 Most Influential Academics in Digital Government globally (as part of the Top 100 in Digital Government) by the global policy platform Apolitical. At The GovLab, Stefaan Verhulst has developed and leads a range of impactful research initiatives that contribute to an enhanced understanding and improved practice of using data, science, and technology for decision and policymaking.

    Co-Founder, Chief of Research and Development, TheGovLab – NYU - New York

  • Victor Negrescu

    Victor Negrescu

    Member of the European Parliament, S&D, Romania

    Victor Negrescu is the vice-chair of the Culture and Education Committee and rapporteur on the shaping of an European digital education policy. He is an emerging leader, active in the field of education, digital innovation, entrepreneurship, European financing, citizens' rights, and institutional affairs. His latest success was to promote in the European Parliament a resolution on education and to introduce in the Recovery and Resilience Facility a recommendation to Member States to allocate 10% for education and 2% for the culture and creative sector. Former Romanian Minister for EU Affairs in charge with the preparation of the EU Council Presidency, he was in the past a digital innovator and a professor before holding the position of MEP. Victor Negrescu is an active promoter of EU values, chairing the PES activists Romania and European Movement Romania organizations. He won in 2015 the MEP of the Year Award for the digital agenda and got recently an award from the Romanian digital industry for his efforts in promoting digital skills and education. As a civic activist, he managed to promote several European petitions calling for citizens and social rights at EU level. MEP Victor Negrescu is a strong advocate for a fair social Europe, based on common policies in the field of education, innovation & digital sector, protection of the environment, healthcare and infrastructure.

    Member of the European Parliament, S&D, Romania

Speakers

Chair

Hans De Canck, Manager – AI Experience Centre / AI for the Common Good

 

Speakers

Carl Mörch, Co-manager AI Institute for Common Good, ULB-VUB

Stefaan Verhulst, Co-Founder, Chief of Research and Development, TheGovLab – NYU – New York

Frederic Pivetta, co-Founder and Managing Partner, Dalberg Data Insights

 

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