Skip to content

Main Insight

The Future Society had the privilege to support the Global Partnership on AI (GPAI) Responsible AI and Pandemic Response working groups. On December 4th 2020, our team presented our reports at the GPAI Plenary with key recommendations for future global action and collaboration. We are very proud to share this work below.

Report Release with the Global Partnership on AI (GPAI) on Responsible AI and AI in Pandemic Response

December 17, 2020

Click here to download our report on Responsible AI.

Click here to download our report on AI & Pandemic Response.

Shortly after the launch of the Global Partnership on AI (GPAI) in June 2020, GPAI working groups released competitive tenders to identify knowledge partners to assist them with their mandates. In October 2020, The Future Society successfully won two tenders and started collaborating  with both the Responsible AI Working Group and the AI & Pandemic Response Subgroup on their mandates and shaping their agendas moving forward. 

Our collaboration with the Responsible AI working group consisted of three main tasks: 

(1) Mapping existing AI initiatives that promote the responsible development and use of AI, including those pertaining to ethics, governance, and social good; 

(2) Analyzing a shortlist of promising initiatives that are particularly relevant to GPAI; 

(3) Providing recommendations and areas for future action, drawing on the opportunities and gaps identified in previous tasks, to inform GPAI’s agenda moving forward.

Our collaboration with the AI in Pandemic Response Subgroup was similarly structured: 

(1) Mapping AI systems that have been developed to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic; 

(2) Analyzing a shortlist of promising AI tools and platforms that are particularly relevant for current and future pandemic; 

(3) Providing recommendations, based on most promising initiatives’  key enabling factors and common hurdles, to steer the Subgroup’s engagement in  pandemic response.

In early December 2020, The Future Society presented these reports alongside the Co-chairs of the Responsible AI Working Group, Yoshua Bengio and Raja Chatila,and AI in Pandemic Response Subgroup, Alice Oh and Paul Suetens, at the inaugural GPAI Multi-stakeholder Plenary.

See the short summary video with Co-Chairs Yoshua Bengio and Raja Chatila and report Project Lead Niki Iliadis. 

Download here The Future Society report, Areas For Future Action in the Responsible AI Ecosystem, for the Responsible AI Working Group, led by Niki Iliadis, Nicolas Moes, Nicolas Miailhe, Sacha Alanoca, Delfina Belli, Caroline Galvan, Suzanne Bays and Sarah Cairns-Smith. 

See the short summary video with Co-Chairs Alice Oh and Paul Suetens, Steering Committee member Seán Ó hÉigeartaigh, and report Project Lead Sacha Alanoca. 

Download here The Future Society report, Responsible AI in Pandemic Response, for the AI in Pandemic Response Subgroup led by Sacha Alanoca, Samuel Curtis, Nicolas Miailhe, Niki Iliadis, Ajit Jaokar, Durria Rubat, Suzanne Bays and Sarah Cairns-Smith.

What is the Global Partnership on AI (GPAI)? 

GPAI is the first intergovernmental institution with a focus on responsible AI. Built around a shared commitment to the OECD Recommendation on AI, GPAI brings together experts from science, industry, civil society, governments, international organisations and academia to foster international cooperation. 

Launched in June 2020, GPAI was developed within the G7, under the Canadian and French presidencies. GPAI’s 15 founding members are Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy,  Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, Slovenia, the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union. They were joined by Brazil, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain in December 2020.

Related resources

How To Make International AI Verification a Reality

How To Make International AI Verification a Reality

Countries outside the U.S.–China AI race can build the verification technologies needed to make an international agreement to slow AI development enforceable. This memo suggests research priorities.

What compute on European soil might buy Europe and what it depends on

What compute on European soil might buy Europe and what it depends on

Across Europe, there is growing appetite for locating large compute capacity at home. This post maps what the benefits' proponents claim such a buildout might bring and the key open questions these claims stand or fall on.

Buyer Beware: What AI-Enabled Weapons in Africa Reveal About Verification

Buyer Beware: What AI-Enabled Weapons in Africa Reveal About Verification

AI rules cannot reliably protect people when compliance cannot be checked. In a new CIGI policy brief co-authored by George Gor (TFS) and Kofi Yeboah (Mozilla), AI-enabled weapons in Africa serve as a case study of how procurement and regional verification can test supplier claims, reduce risks to civilians and...

The Case for Cross-Border AI Incident Infrastructure

The Case for Cross-Border AI Incident Infrastructure

AI incidents are scaling fast, and coordinated global governance is lagging behind. This report proposes addressing this challenge through the development of internationally-distributed incident management infrastructure. Our recommendations aim to enable governments, multilateral bodies, and frontier AI companies to jointly detect, prepare for, and respond to AI incidents across jurisdictions.

Determining the State of the Art in General-Purpose AI Risk Management: From Code to Practice

Determining the State of the Art in General-Purpose AI Risk Management: From Code to Practice

The EU's AI Act and Code of Practice requires providers of the most advanced AI models to meet the ‘state of the art’ (SOTA) in safety and security. In a new policy memo, we argue that SOTA is best understood as a process-driven concept, advanced by the broader expert ecosystem.

EU AI Act meets AI Agents

EU AI Act meets AI Agents

Highlights from Tech Policy Press article “The EU AI Act is Not Ready for Agents,” examining how the EU AI Act applies to AI agents and governance challenges.