The Intersection of Humanity and Emerging Technology: Governing Artificial Intelligence
About the author: Anna Nguyen ’21 is an FSI Global Policy Intern with Andrew Grotto. She is currently a Master’s in International Policy (MIP) student at Stanford University.
Looking back, all the dots connect.
As a global citizen and avid world traveler, I was excited about a planned summer in Germany working with European policymakers on issues surrounding digital sovereignty. But 2020 had a different plan in place. Due to the global pandemic, I decided to stay on campus at Stanford University and make the best of this amazing place I call home. I found a fantastic opportunity to work with Professor Andrew Grotto, Director of the Program on Geopolitics, Technology, and Governance at the Center for International Security and Cooperation. During my first year as an MIP student, I developed a strong passion in artificial intelligence (AI) governance, and in answering the question about how to inject humanity, ethical and moral values, into the development of AI. I was delighted to hear that Professor Grotto was working with Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI) on an exciting workshop series with key stakeholders to answer the same set of questions. It turned out to be the perfect opportunity for my summer.
One of the most important and complex applications of artificial intelligence is in autonomous vehicles (AVs). AVs have been developing rapidly, from SAE level 0 to level 4 in the time span of less than a decade. Being passionate about comparative policies, I was elated to work on my first assignment, which comprised of research on the governance frameworks and policies adopted by global governments for AVs. Through the research process, I learned a tremendous amount about how regulators are handling the process of setting up rigorous governance of emerging technologies. Even though no country could claim that they have figured out how to effectively regulate AVs, researching the process taught me many lessons about applying different approaches to solve the same challenge, the pros and cons of those approaches, and the diverse reaction by the public and private sectors the policies, given the background factors of cultures, economics, and mindsets.
This was part of the preparation work for our workshop with HAI in July 2020. We were honored to be joined by American and European regulators and government agencies. The discussion focused on the key issue of governing AI in various industries including financial services, medicine, pharmaceuticals, and transportation. We learned that governments and agencies in different parts of the world face very similar issues despite geographical, cultural and economic differences. Therefore, we recognized the tremendous potential for collaboration. The workshop gave us the insights that we, at Stanford, can contribute significantly to the ongoing effort by facilitating the process of collaboration and knowledge transfer across industries, countries, and continents.
The July workshop is the first workshop in a series we will organize that will involve many other key stakeholders such as the private sector, academia researchers, and civil society. I believe that in order for us to effectively manage and govern the development, testing, and deployment of AI, we must be able to facilitate intense collaboration among all the stakeholders and establish a common understanding of ethical guidelines as well as technical standards. It is going to be a long process, but we are already off to a great start.
On top of my internship responsibilities, I also allocated time to advance my knowledge in the AI domain. I pursued and completed the professional certificate in Applied Artificial Intelligence by IBM. The program provided me with foundational knowledge of the principles of AI. There were 6 courses in this professional certificate, including fundamentals in AI and Machine Learning, Python for Data Science, AI applications, Watson APIs, Computer Vision with Watson and OpenCV.
I also attended several AI-focused conferences and events, such as the Stanford Artificial Intelligence in Medicine & Imaging Symposium and the Ai4 2020 AI Conference. One of the most fascinating memories from these events was listening to Bina48 — a humanoid robot developed by Hanson Robotics and released in 2010 — talk about her training with poetry, her favorite poems, and the importance of poetry for humanity. Even though Bina48 sounded slightly pessimistic at times, she is a vivid case study of AI’s capability to socially and emotionally interact with humans.
Overall, the summer of 2020 turned out to be far better than I could ever have hoped. I had the opportunity to work in the area of my interest and academic focus and I had the bandwidth to complete a professional credential and to virtually participate in key events happening around the world. AI governance and ethics will continue to be a key challenge for policymakers and regulators around the world for many years to come. I am more optimistic than ever now, as I have had the chance to work with many talented individuals who are passionate about the topic, who are working tirelessly to steer this emerging technology away from potential harmful exploitation, and instead, to deploy it to advance the goodness of humanity.
