politics – Blockchain & AI Forum

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.

Click to access AIstrategy%20English%2016-1-2025-1.pdf

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

Namaste Yogis. Welcome to the Blockchain & AI Forum, where your blockchain and artificial intelligence technology questions are answered! As a bonus, a proverb is also included. Today’s question, was submitted by Eduardo from Panama, and he wants to know why Coinbase has decided to enter American politics and what difference will it make?

Eduardo, you came to the right place. I’ll answer your questions as you presented them, beginning with why Coinbase decided to get political. Of course Coinbase is the largest centralized American crypto exchange platform. Think of Coinbase as the Charles Schwab of crypto asset trading.

Coinbase has learned two old lessons. First, businesses need friends in politics, especially if they intend to disrupt powerful entrenched interest and incumbents. Coinbase failed to recognize incumbents transform their economic power into political might and thereby prevent, minimize, and/or sabotage new entries into the market. Second, Coinbase neglected to mobilize their constituency into a political movement from day one. Instead Coinbase relied on business and legal strategies to win the competition and failed to recognize the war has three fronts—business, legal, and political. Coinbase is now playing catchup. Essentially, Coinbase jumped into politics out of necessity. Let’s now examine Coinbase’s political strategy?

Coinbase claims 52M Americans own crypto. Coinbase didn’t cite a source but let’s suppose their numbers are correct. Crypto owners are adults and therefore of voting age. In the 2020 presidential election, 155M votes where casted: 81M for Biden and 74M for Trump. Neither candidate was “pro-crypto”. Both were anti-crypto, and crypto was not an election issue.

In 2024 crypto will most likely be a third-tier national issue, behind the economy, war, taxes, environment, abortion rights, gun control, Supreme Court, etc. However, for crypto-fundamentalists it could be a first-tier issue or tiebreaker voting matter. The questions then become how many crypto-fundamentalists voters are there, do they live in swing states where 1-2% make a significant difference, and what is their propensity to vote?

According to Coinbase, “… we are launching an effort to mobilize 52M crypto owners—younger and more diverse than the US population as a whole—into a powerful force heading into the 2024 election with an intense effort on nine key states”. Let’s examine this strategy.

A focus on nine key states makes sense on the surface. However, the swing states population are not younger and more diverse. Hence, there is a disconnect in the strategy. Moreover, younger, and diverse voters favor the Democratic Party. However, Republicans are perceived as more crypto friendly, particularly after Trump’s recent speech in Nashville at the Bitcoin conference. Will young and diverse voters abandon the Dems in meaningful numbers over crypto regulations–extremely unlikely.

Coinbase wants crypto to be a non-partisan issue; that makes perfect business sense. Coinbase is motivated to mobilize younger and more diverse voters because those are their customers. Dem voters are also younger and diverse. Hence, the smart political maneuver is for the Dems to capitalize on the efforts of Coinbase by becoming crypto friendly and motivate voters that are proportionately more in the Dems camp. Dems have every incentive to become crypto friendly because their natural constituency is there waiting. Making the switch now blunts the trend of crypto becoming a wedge issue. Additionally, it stymies the Republican party from developing an advantage with younger voters via crypto now. Harris can start by distancing herself from the anti-crypto zealous, e.g., Elizabeth Warren, kicking Gensler off the team, and appearing before the crypto community to listen, not just talk.

I conclude with a proverb from Estonia: “What village dogs will not eat wolves will not eat either”.

Sincerely,

Yogi Nelson

Tag: politics

Understanding AI Safety: Global Initiatives Explored

Coinbase’s Political Mobilization of Crypto Owners: Analyzing the Strategy