With AI-related risks being inherently global in nature, the hope and anticipation is that there will be a suitably robust regulatory environment wherever the technology is deployed, Michael Connor, Executive Director at Open MIC, tells ESG Investor.
“Many companies have global activities, so we need to ensure that if they are applying a higher standard in Europe due to EU regulations, this should be the case wherever they operate to foster greater corporate accountability in the deployment and use of digital technologies,” he says.
“These AI resolutions are just the beginning – this is not something that we see as a one off,” said Dheere. “AI is here to stay and it is in the interest of civil society, investors, companies, and governments policymakers to maintain focus on how we integrate it constructively into society while protecting human rights – and, frankly, the companies that are creating it.”
Michael Connor of Open MIC: “…we've embarked over the years on a whole range of issues ranging from the need for federal privacy laws writ large to artificial intelligence, facial recognition, all sorts of issues. And more recently working with both Arjuna and with my colleague Jessica at Open MIC on questions of artificial intelligence and what that means for misinformation and disinformation and as well dealing with Ekō and Christina as well. So the three organizations have been involved in a big effort lately about artificial intelligence.”
“We approached Apple in good faith and encouraged them to take a leadership role here,” says Ifeoma Ozoma, who’s helping to lead the effort. “Their response was to use the same employee handbook that they’ve reportedly been using to silence workers as an excuse to say no. We responded that this wasn’t acceptable — and curiously haven’t heard back.”
"It's a big step. In the coming days, hundreds of millions of people will be made far more aware of the fact that they have the power to not be tracked," Michael Connor, executive director at not-for-profit Open MIC (Open Media and Information Companies Initiative), tells ZDNet.
"Apple exerts extraordinary influence on the mobile phone ecosystem, and this will set the bar for other apps. People will hopefully come to expect that opting in is a choice they have, rather than something that is inflicted."
