Africa contributes minimally to global greenhouse gas emissions but bears a disproportionate burden of climate change impacts. This article explores how artificial intelligence (AI) can bolster conservation and sustainability efforts across the continent. While challenges such as technological import reliance and digital divides persist, AI offers transformative potential by enhancing early prediction, disaster preparedness, and environmental management. Examples like Rwanda’s Wastezon, Ghana’s Okuafo Foundation, and Kenya’s Kuzi illustrate successful AI-driven initiatives. The article proposes adapting a public health prevention model-primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention-to structure AI-based environmental interventions. This approach would enable early detection of climate risks, timely mitigation efforts, and rehabilitation of damaged ecosystems. The authors also caution about AI’s environmental costs, including energy-intensive operations and resource extraction, advocating for ethical and Africa-centered AI solutions. Overall, the article argues that innovative, community-driven, and preventive uses of AI are essential for building climate resilience in Africa.
Category: Sector: Society
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Trustworthy and Responsible AI for Human-Centric Autonomous Decision-Making Systems
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has paved the way for revolutionary decision-making processes, which if harnessed appropriately, can contribute to advancements in various sectors, from healthcare to economics. However, its black box nature presents significant ethical challenges related to bias and transparency. AI applications are hugely impacted by biases, presenting inconsistent and unreliable findings, leading to significant costs and consequences, highlighting and perpetuating inequalities and unequal access to resources. Hence, developing safe, reliable, ethical, and Trustworthy AI systems is essential. Our team of researchers working with Trustworthy and Responsible AI, part of the Transdisciplinary Scholarship Initiative within the University of Calgary, conducts research on Trustworthy and Responsible AI, including fairness, bias mitigation, reproducibility, generalization, interpretability, and authenticity. In this paper, we review and discuss the intricacies of AI biases, definitions, methods of detection and mitigation, and metrics for evaluating bias. We also discuss open challenges with regard to the trustworthiness and widespread application of AI across diverse domains of human-centric decision making, as well as guidelines to foster Responsible and Trustworthy AI models.
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‘We Condemn the Sin, not the Sinner’: Understanding the Attitudes of Adventist and Baptist Believers in Montenegro towards Sexuality
Although we have seen studies on religion and sexuality in the West come to dominate the relevant scholarship, the postsocialist environment with a predominantly Orthodox population has received less attention. This paper fills the gap by examining the attitudes of Adventist and Baptist believers in Montenegro, with a particular focus on abortion, premarital sexual activities and non-heteronormative sexuality. Because we were dealing with a minority population, we opted for a qualitative methodology and conducted semistructured interviews with 17 Adventist and 15 Baptist believers. As observed, our research participants’ position towards sexuality is closely related to the teachings found in the Bible. However, it is possible to observe certain differences between the two groups; for example, the interviewed Adventists tend to be more conservative than the interviewed Baptists. In addition, the male Adventists seem slightly more liberal than female Adventists, whereas the situation is different among Baptists, where women come across as more liberal than men.
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Toward a trustworthy and inclusive data governance policy for the use of artificial intelligence in Africa
This article proposes five ideas that the design of data governance policies for the trustworthy use of artificial intelligence (AI) in Africa should consider. The first is for African states to assess their domestic strategic priorities, strengths, and weaknesses. The second is a human-centric approach to data governance, which involves data processing practices that protect the security of personal data and the privacy of data subjects; ensure that personal data are processed in a fair, lawful, and accountable manner; minimize the harmful effect of personal data misuse or abuse on data subjects and other victims; and promote a beneficial, trusted use of personal data. The third is for the data policy to be in alignment with supranational rights-respecting AI standards like the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights, the AU Convention on Cybersecurity, and Personal Data Protection. The fourth is for states to be critical about the extent to which AI systems can be relied on in certain public sectors or departments. The fifth and final proposition is for the need to prioritize the use of representative and interoperable data and ensure a transparent procurement process for AI systems from abroad where no local options exist.
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Digitization and Political Participation in the MENA Region: Egypt, Kuwait, and Tunisia
The article highlights the link between digitization and political participation in three Middle Eastern countries: Egypt, Kuwait, and Tunisia. The role of the Internet and social media in political engagement is thoroughly discussed from a historical-comparative perspective. Using micro and macro level data, the study analyzes the usage of new online technologies and online political participation.
The findings provide valuable insights for understanding the intricate nature of online political participation and the paradox between digital engagement and traditional political involvement. Despite the expansion of digital media, traditional political interest and participation has decreased. Egypt and Kuwait demonstrate advanced stages of digitization with widespread Internet access, while Tunisia’s progress is varied. -
OECD Gender Equality in Technology Governance
Director Mackenzie represented the Aula Fellowship and the AI context in conversations at this global conference for equity. We stand together, or we fall.
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World AI: Women in AI
A collaborative event with Women in AI. We asked conference participants to tell us about their hard questions in AI, and had many fruitful conversations for future collaborations.
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World AI: Women in AI
We organized with Women in AI for this 2024 World AI group photo on the main stage. Thank you to everyone who participated!
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AI Governance for the Global Majority: Understanding Opportunities and Challenges
Artificial intelligence (AI) will impact individuals, communities, and institutions worldwide in both unique and universal ways. While public and private sector actors have begun to build the foundations for achieving more secure and trustworthy AI, the voices shaping the AI governance agenda are primarily from the Global North. To govern AI in a way that reflects a global range of contexts, it is imperative to adopt a more inclusive lens in defining its harms and opportunities. Broadly accepted AI governance principles may struggle to translate into practice without a more explicit focus on how priorities and challenges prevalent in the Global Majority intersect with AI.
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A Global South Perspective on Explainable AI
A context-driven approach is necessary to translate principles like explainability into practice globally. These vignettes illustrate how AI can be made more trustworthy for users in the Global South through more creative, context-rooted approaches to legibility.
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How Issav Asimov Predicted/Influenced the Present AI Scenario
This paper investigates Isaac Asimov’s impact on modern artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics, focusing on how his visionary narratives and Three Laws of Robotics resonate with current technological practices and ethical debates. Analyzing specific predictions from Asimov’s works that have materialized in today’s AI applications, we draw parallels between his fictional insights and real-world technologies from leading tech firms. The study further considers the social implications of AI, including issues of human displacement and trust. We also discuss the progress and challenges in formulating global ethical standards for AI, reflecting on national and international efforts. The analysis highlights Asimov’s lasting influence and the ongoing importance of ethical deliberation in the AI field.
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De la gestión de crisis a la crisis de gestión: Responsabilidad y democracias liberales en el estallido de la pandemia de la COVID-19
El estallido de la pandemia de la COVID-19 conmocionó a las sociedades de todo el mundo. En su esfuerzo por adaptar sus respuestas a la crisis a sus propias condiciones de supervivencia, los gobiernos tendieron desde el principio a recurrir a argumentos que limitaban la rendición de cuentas frente a la población. Las democracias liberales no fueron ajenas a esta forma de abordar el problema. En ese contexto, sus dirigentes esgrimieron la metáfora de la guerra para describir su posición como garantes de la supervivencia de la población frente a la nueva amenaza. Atenazados entre la incertidumbre y la necesidad de predecir la naturaleza y la evolución del enemigo invisible, sus respuestas pusieron en entredicho la responsabilidad política, profesional y personal de los dirigentes. En este artículo se ofrece una reflexión sobre el nivel de responsabilidad de los gobiernos de las democracias liberales en la gestión de la pandemia. Durante la crisis, los decisores tendieron a dejarse llevar por las narrativas que les resultaban más beneficiosas para escabullirse de sus responsabilidades, apuntalando así sus necesidades políticas a corto plazo a través del uso de metáforas belicistas, el juego de culpas, la competición con otros países y la dispersión de las fuentes en el proceso de toma de decisiones. Esta realidad supone hoy un llamado a la reflexión a los actores sociales, incluidos los expertos, intelectuales y medios de comunicación, para trascender la retórica predominante en la gestión de la pandemia y la “nueva normalidad” que le siguió, de manera que la dinámica de alteraciones constantes de las reglas del juego y las responsabilidades pueda dar paso, en el futuro, a un escenario con menos arbitrariedad y más rendición de cuentas.