Welcome to the Blockchain & AI Forum, where your technology questions are answered! Today’s question: is anyone working on artificial intelligence (AI) safety initiatives? Let’s begin at the top—what is AI safety?
What is AI Safety. According to IBM, AI safety involves ensuring AI systems are used responsibly, developed with human values, and that potential risks are identified and mitigated. It also includes safeguarding confidentiality and integrity of AI models, addressing bias, data security, and vulnerability to external threats. AI safety should minimize potential harm to human and the environment, as well as prevent misuse and other unintended consequences.
AI Safety Institutes Across the Global. While researching this topic, I discovered the existence of numerous AI safety initiatives and institutes on every continent. Some are government dominated, others industry led, and you can also find AI safety institutions within the non-profit/research eco-system. Today, I’ll highlight a few AI safety initiatives and institutes from every continent. Where to start? Why not in alphabetic order with the African continent.
AI Safety Initiatives in Africa. For better or worse, there is no unified AI safety initiative coming out of Africa, as a continent. However, that doesn’t mean individual African nations are asleep. To the contrary, several African nations have active AI safety programs. For example, Nigeria has a draft national AI strategy in circulation that includes AI safety. https://paradigmhq.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Towards-A-Rights-Respecting-Artificial-Intelligence-Policy-for-Nigeria.pdf Or for instance, in Egypt the National Council for Artificial Intelligence, a government think tank, produced the following report on AI that includes AI safety.
Numerous other African nations have strong initiatives but for now we move on to Asia.
AI Safety Initiatives in Asia. It’s unrealistic to expect that Asia would be limited to only one umbrella organization dedicated to AI safety. Asia is to diverse and enormous of the continent for that. Nevertheless, there are regional blocks of nations working in collaboration to ensure safe AI. A prime example is Artificial Intelligence Safety Asia, AISA. AISA is a global non-profit dedicated to the international governance of safe AI by Asians, starting in Southeast Asia. Their goal is to build local expertise and foster collaboration in order to produce practical AI safety policies. AISA accomplishes the mission by training civil servants, forging partnerships, and “incubating” junior researchers. https://www.aisafety.asia/
To no surprise, Singapore has a major AI safety institute; it’s known as Artificial Intelligence Singapore Institute (AISI). AISI has several AI safety initiatives underway, including an extensive multi-year effort with the Digital Trust Centre Singapore (DTC) and the Infocomm Media Development Authority of Singapore (IMDA) for the purpose of advancing AI safety in Singapore. https://sgaisi.sg/
AI Safety Initiatives in Europe. Europe has a plethora of AI safety initiatives, and one of those is the European Network for AI Safety, ENAIS is its acronym. ENAIS is a think tank of researchers from across Europe united in the effort to advance safe AI use. https://www.enais.co/
AI Safety Initiatives in North America. The U.S. government has an AI safety institute; it’s called the U.S. AI Safety Institute (US AISI). The mission is to identify, measure, and mitigate the risks of advanced AI systems, says USAISI. The idea is to harness the enormous potential of AI technology by developing the testing, evaluations, and guidelines required to accelerate trustworthy AI innovation–with a keen focus on helping to prevent misuse by those who seek to undermine public safety and national security. https://www.nist.gov/aisi
AI Safety in South America. According to a recent study by the Brookings Institute, a think tank in Washington, D.C., regional cooperation in the field of AI safety is emerging in Latin America. Brookings notes that Brazil, Peru, and Costa Rica, are all using existing AI safety models from Europe, North America, and Asia as well as their own ideas to create AI safety standards in their respective nations. https://www.brookings.edu/articles/regional-cooperation-crucial-for-ai-safety-and-governance-in-latin-america/
Problem solving begins with recognition that a problem exist, or may soon appear. Its encouraging to see a concerted effort across the global working on AI safety. Time to say goodbye with the World Economic Forum’s motto: “entrepreneurship in the global public interest”. Lol.
Until next time,
Yogi Nelson
Blockchain & AI Forum 