AI for Society and the Kule Institute for Advanced Research helped organize a conference on Artificial Intelligence for Information Accessibility (AI4IA) on September 28th, 2020. This conference was organized on the International Day for Universal Access to Information which is why the focus was on how AI can be important to access to information. An important partner in the conference was the UNESCO Information For All Programme (IFAP) Working Group on Information Accessibility (WGIA)
International Day for Universal Access to Information focused on the right to information in times of crisis and on the advantages of having constitutional, statutory and/or policy guarantees for public access to information to save lives, build trust and help the formulation of sustainable policies through and beyond the COVID-19 crisis. Speakers talked about how vital access to accurate information is in these pandemic times and the role artificial intelligence could play as we prepare for future crises. Tied to this was a discussion of the important role for international policy initiatives and shared regulation in ensuring that smaller countries, especially in the Global South, benefit from developments in AI. The worry is that some countries won’t have the digital literacy or cadre of experts to critically guide the introduction of AI.
The AI4S Associate Director, Geoffrey Rockwell, kept conference notes on the talks here, Conference Notes on AI4AI 2020.