Medlir is joined by Dr. Hannes Mueller to discuss recent developments in conflict prevention. Specifically, we examine how artificial intelligence can help governments detect risk early, predict the likelihood of new conflicts, and prevent older ones from re-emerging.

• https://conflictforecast.org/
• https://digital.csic.es/bitstream/10261/303316/1/Mueller%20and%20Rauh_2022.pdf
• https://bse.eu/research/working-papers/dynamic-early-warning-and-action-model
• https://www.etcalpoly.org/the-pandemic-chronicles/humanism-v-dataism-an-ethical-quandary

For our season opener, Young Diogenes has a chat with Chris and Medlir about some cool new things large language models can now do for us. Specifically, why some companies, like Google with Gemini, are choosing to concentrate on increasingly larger context windows (i.e., the size of the text, music, video prompt, etc., that the AI can parse). And why being able to load an entire book, a movie, or your entire life into the prompt and then have a conversation about these things, might be useful.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_EliVUkuFA&t=23s&ab_channel=TwoMinutePapers
• https://www.tomsguide.com/ai/i-test-ai-for-a-living-and-googles-new-version-of-gemini-is-a-turning-point-for-the-industry
• https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2024/04/words-are-flowing-out-like-endless-rain-recapping-a-busy-week-of-llm-news/
• https://blog.google/technology/ai/long-context-window-ai-models/

Medlir asks Lukas Andriukaitis, Board member of Lithuania-based Civic Resilience Initiative (CRI), what it means to work and live at the frontier of the new misinformation / disinformation space. They discuss the current atmosphere in the region and beyond, in terms of threat of misinformation/disinformation. They consider both the benefits and the drawbacks of AI-enabled technologies as billions across the world prepare to cast their votes in 2024.

Links:

• https://cri.lt/
• https://cri.lt/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Chinese-Russian-Disinformation-Efforts-in-Lithuania-and-Taiwan.pdf
• https://www.brookings.edu/articles/how-ai-will-transform-the-2024-elections/
• https://www.techuk.org/resource/deepfakes-and-disinformation-what-impact-could-this-have-on-elections-in-2024.html

Tags: AI, emerging tech, election, misinformation, disinformation, Lithuania, Russia, International Relations

Luca Bertuzzi joins Medlir for a discussion on the EU AI Act passed by the European Parliament on March 13th. Among other things, they discuss the likely impact of the law on innovation and governance within the EU and abroad, as well as criticisms that the act fails to address concerns regarding human rights and civil liberties.

Links:

• https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2024/03/13/lawmakers-approve-ai-act-with-overwhelming-majority?utm_content=buffer785c3&utm_medium=social&utm_source=linkedin.com&utm_campaign=buffer
• https://www.accessnow.org/press-release/joint-statement-ai-act-fails-migrants-and-people-on-the-move/
• https://www.euractiv.com/section/artificial-intelligence/opinion/eus-much-heralded-ai-act-agreed-by-eu-parliament-but-serious-human-rights-holes-in-law-remain/

#EUAIACT; #AIgovernance; #innovation; #human rights; #emergingtech; #EU;

Andrej Zwitter and Oskar Gstrein share with Chris what they will be keeping an eye out for in the AI regulatory space in 2024. They also discuss their latest work on the politics and governance of big data and artificial intelligence and their newly published Handbook on the Governance Politics and Governance of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence. In this discussion Andrej and Oskar explore the EU AI Act and challenges that datafication and algorithmic logics pose for governance, privacy, and human agency, and ponder the question: what does it mean to stay human in the age of AI?

Show Notes:

• Andrej Zwitter and Oskar Gstrein (eds.), Research Handbook on Politics and Governance of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence, Edward Elgar, 2023, Partially Open Access.
• Dirk Helbing, Thomas Beschorner, Bruno Frey, Andreas Diekmann, Thilo Hagendorff, Peter Seele, Sarah Spiekermann-Hoff, Jeroen van den Hoven, and Andrej Zwitter. “Triage 4.0: On Death Algorithms and Technological Selection. Is Today’s Data- Driven Medical System Still Compatible with the Constitution?” Journal of European CME Vol. 10, no. 1, 2021
• Oskar Gstrein and Andrej Zwitter, “Extraterritorial application of the GDPR: Promoting European values or power?”, Internet Policy Review Vol. 10, Issue 3, 2021
• Andrej Zwitter, Oskar Gstrein, Evan Yap, “Digital Identity and the Blockchain: Universal Identity Management and the concept of the 'Self-Sovereign' Individual”, Frontiers in Blockchain, Vol. 3/26, 2020

Links:

• European AI Regulation: Brussels Effect versus Human Dignity?
  • Also available here: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4214358
• How to protect privacy in a datafied society? A presentation of multiple legal and conceptual approaches
  
  

Medlir sits down with Dr. Raluca Csernatoni and Dr. Marijn Hoijtink to discuss the escalating ‘innovation race’ among corporate giants. They discuss AI’s contribution to the rise in power of the private tech sector vs. the state, as well as the ‘existential threat’ and ‘superintelligence’ narratives around foundational AI models and how these shape specific socio-technical imaginaries of the future. They also dive into AI’s impact on geopolitical and military power, including Sino-American competition, and the rise of AI ‘nationalism’ or ‘sovereignty’.

Links:

• https://www.uantwerpen.be/nl/personeel/marijn-hoijtink_23930/
• https://carnegieeurope.eu/experts/1709
• https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14650045.2023.2224235
• https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/17816858211059251
• https://www.researchgate.net/publication/373378810_Whose_insecurity_Gender_race_and_coloniality_in_European_security_policies_Introduction_to_the_Special_Issue
• https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13600826.2023.2261466
• https://www.ispionline.it/en/publication/the-comeback-of-industrial-policy-the-next-geopolitical-great-game-145627
  
  
  Tags: #AI, #warfare, #algorithmicviolence, #EUAIAct, #AInationalism #innovationrace

Medlir is joined by Baptiste Alloui-Cros, founder of the Strand Simulations Group and a wargame designer, to discuss how AI is likely to impact how we think, strategize, and prepare for war.

Links:

• https://strandsimulationsgroup.com/
• https://www.militarystrategymagazine.com/article/does-artificial-intelligence-change-the-nature-of-war/
• https://www.militarystrategymagazine.com/article/what-is-the-utility-of-the-principles-of-war/

#wargaming, #simulation, #AI, #warfare, #strategy

This week Medlir and our guest Rebekah Dowd, an academic, scholar, and author of The Birth of Digital Human Rights: Digitized Data Governance as a Human Rights Issue in the EU, explore how and why the EU became a leader in the realm of digital human rights.

Links:

• https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-82969-8
• https://gdpr.eu/what-is-gdpr/
• https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/headlines/society/20230601STO93804/eu-ai-act-first-regulation-on-artificial-intelligence
• https://www.globalgovernance.eu/publications/rolling-back-the-ai-act-is-a-mistake-heres-why

#digital human rights, #GDPR, #EU AI Act, #EU, #Big Tech, #data protection