Creating Eco-friendly Policy System for Emerging Technology

Speaker 1

Technological advancement is occurring at an unparalleled pace, with artificial intelligence, deep learning, and blockchain emerging as significant phenomena in society. Notably, renowned institutes’ research publications and inventive initiatives like ChildGPT reinforce the progression of these technologies, aligning with the objectives of SDG 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure.

However, the accelerating pace of technological advancement, whilst bringing opportunities, also presents significant challenges — particularly concerning the environmental impact. The key argument acknowledges that innovation, albeit beneficial, must not jeopardise our planet’s well-being — a sentiment embodying SDG 13: Climate Action’s objectives.

Within the realm of education, higher education institutions bear a vital responsibility to foster socio-environmental consciousness. They must nurture a sustainable ethos, fulfilling their obligations towards SDG 4: Quality Education, and SDG 13: Climate Action, underlining education’s importance for a sustainable future.

Furthermore, there is an emphasis on inculcating global consciousness, forging new partnerships, and pushing for innovative policies — all of which align profoundly with SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals, and SDG 4: Quality Education. Beyond technological progression, innovation must also pervade policymaking to keep pace with technological shifts. Policymakers must uncover novel means to meet societal demands and solve problems whilst safeguarding peaceful and just societies — epitomising SDG 16: Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions.

The debates also prominently feature the concepts of inclusion and empowerment. The recurrent paradigm is a shift from ‘leaving no one behind’ to ‘letting everyone take the pilot seat’, resonating profoundly with SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities and reinforcing the need for a balanced and inclusive society where individuals have the opportunity to contribute and flourish.

In conclusion, the interrelationship among technology, society, and the environment is intricate and multifaceted, with education, innovative policies, and a drive for increased inclusivity and empowerment pivotal in navigating this complex landscape. A coordinated approach aligned with these elements offers the promise of a sustainable and equitable future for all.

Speaker 4

Universities and higher educational institutions play a pivotal role in the development and promotion of green engineering and eco-friendly, emerging technologies. This emphasises their commitment to both Quality Education (SDG 4) and Climate Action (SDG 13). This responsibility is frequently embedded in their teaching curricula, with the trajectory of university research and development greatly influenced by the perspectives of professional engineering bodies and governmental policies.

Eco-development of AI, a nascent field, is characterised by two primary factors. Firstly, it is necessary to consider the environmental impact and efficiency of AI tools. Secondly, we have to examine how AI technology can facilitate the realisation of a circular economy, adhering to the targets of Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure (SDG 9) and Responsible Consumption and Production (SDG 12). Distinguishing these two fields is pivotal for ensuing progress in the area.

Moreover, progress in AI necessitates engagement from principal stakeholders such as innovators, policymakers, and industry players. This engagement is crucial for achieving Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure (SDG 9) and Partnerships for the Goals (SDG 17). The inclusion of these stakeholders encourages an aligned information flow, aiding in effective decision-making processes.

A key challenge in AI development is the regulation of international data exchange, which intersects intriguingly with intellectual property protection and export control regulations. This point underscores the need to strengthen Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions (SDG 16). Establishing a balance between data protection and export control requires a nuanced approach, respecting all applicable legal and ethical standards.

Importantly, AI is not an unheard-of challenge. It can glean insights from history and learn lessons from past technological developments such as nuclear technology, plastics, and robotics. By evaluating their trajectories, we can anticipate and mitigate potential risks associated with AI development.

Finally, there is a clear necessity for creative, cross-disciplinary solutions to overcome challenges related to AI and sustainable technologies. This aligns with the need for a collaborative and encompassing approach to addressing challenges at a systemic level. Merging diverse fields of study and industry expertise is critical for devising comprehensive solutions, embodying the essence of both Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure (SDG 9) and Partnerships for the Goals (SDG 17).

Doris Mwikali

Doris Mwikali strongly emphasises the necessity for inclusivity and equity in environmental dialogues as a crucial step towards achieving sustainability objectives. A fundamental aspect of this, as Mwikali proposes, is heightened engagement with the Global South, which can offer invaluable insight into their unique interpretations and consequences of environmental policies. This engagement aims to democratise the policy-making proceedings and can aid in developing understandings that counteract the power dynamics often prevalent between the Global North and the Global South, ultimately leading to reduced inequalities.

Mwikali promotes a shift in our perception and usage of innovation, contesting that it should not merely be a tool for material benefits. Instead, she advocates for innovation for the greater good, championing advancements that can catalyse tangible improvements in sustainable practices globally.

Moreover, Mwikali promotes the concept of shared responsibility and collective action in the pursuit of sustainability goals. Encouraging expansive participation in these dialogues, she aims to stimulate a discussion between the Global North and South, emphasising that collaborative efforts are pivotal in propelling the cause of environmental sustainability.

In an era distinguished by rapid technological growth, Mwikali underscores the necessity for intergenerational dialogue in policy creation. She highlights the role of diverse stakeholder groups, including youth, the private sector, academia, and civil society, in the design and execution of new technologies. By inviting these varied voices to the discussion table, Mwikali believes we can exploit the full potential of technological advancements while ensuring they serve the common good.

She stresses education as a foundational basis for policy creation. Mwikali highlights the need to equip the forthcoming generation with the knowledge and skills they need to interact effectively with new technologies by advocating for the funding of new research to establish evidence-based procedures. In doing so, she alludes to a future where informed policy creation and implementation are the norm.

Lastly, she invokes the Sustainable Development Goal 17 – ‘Partnerships for the Goals’ – to reiterate the crucial role every stakeholder plays in policy creation. Indeed, she suggests that policy design and implementation should not solely be the domain of policy makers but should be viewed as a collective action involving all, underlining the importance of unity in moving towards our shared sustainability goals.

Bosen Lily Liu

In an insightful discussion, Lily underscored the key role of higher education, which serves as a critical conduit between education and industry. It bolsters the inclusion of the greening concept within our education system, hence ensuring the conversion of knowledge into tangible practices. Her argument conveyed a positive stance towards the central role of higher education in greening processes and accentuated the need for its inclusion within innovation strategies.

Lily further emphasised the indispensability of an ‘evidence-based approach’ when implementing eco-friendly practices. She posited that assembling data and its analytical peer review lay the foundation before extending any recommendations. She reiterated that robust decision-making is underpinned by empirical evidence, thereby advocating a judicious approach to sustainable endeavours.

Lily’s discussion also embraced the idea of multi-stakeholder engagement. She expressed firm belief in the necessity of leveraging all stakeholders in the greening process. In her argument, she proposed that the proactive and significant involvement of diverse stakeholders can harmonise efforts directed at Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), thus significantly advancing progress towards SDG 13.

In an era characterised by the emergence of technologies such as AI, blockchain, and big data, Lily recognised their extraordinary potential to streamline environmental efficiency. She laid emphasis on utilising these advancements across varied domains, discussing their high relevance in achieving SDGs.

Lily also identified the essential role of the global south in formulating environmental policies and technological evolution. The engagement of these nations, due to their notable achievements in SDG 13, was underscored. Furthermore, she conveyed the necessity to reimagine the classic model of shared responsibility, highlighting the global south stakeholders as integral contributors rather than mere beneficiaries. Their unique experiences in environmental conservation, coupled with their innovative efficiency, should be channelled towards sustainability efforts.

Building upon the theme of global equality, Lily advocated for a re-evaluated model challenging prevailing paradigms and offering a more balanced viewpoint. She pressed for the consideration of the entire lifecycle of electronic devices, censuring the reductive perception of treating certain regions merely as dumping grounds for electronic waste. Through her arguments, Lily calls for a more comprehensive viewpoint that encapsulates all factors in order to sculpt a more sustainable and equal world.

Speaker 3

The analysis robustly endorses the adoption of a comprehensive, multifaceted approach to confront modern challenges such as climate change. Emphasising the vital importance of collaboration, it champions a system that prioritises knowledge sharing. It further advocates for a collective effort from governments, businesses, foundations, universities, and other stakeholders. The recommended interventions are not random, but meticulously planned, scalable and fundamentally intended to have a sustainable impact.

Youth leadership is accorded significant attention in the analysis. Situated at the intersection of youth leadership and education reform, the summary finds that the inclusion of youth in global conversations is a necessity. It calls for the creation of platforms and the provision of indispensable knowledge, skills, and tools that foster innovation amongst young individuals. In this aspect, it posits that quality education is a paramount Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) to achieve.

The analysis recognises that civil societies play an integral role in fostering dialogue and innovation on a global scale. They are lauded as independent platforms that facilitate discourse from all groups, particularly advocating for inclusive conversations that integrate marginalised communities into policy and solution development discussions. This aligns with SDGs rooted in creating sustainable cities and communities and promoting peace, justice, and robust institutions.

The transformative impact of technology, particularly within the education sector, is positively acknowledged. Emerging technologies are hailed for their potential to reinforce education initiatives both within individual countries and on a global level. The frictionless integration of technology across geographical boundaries underlines the argument for a more inclusive, technology-driven, and globally unified education.

Additionally, the analysis embraces a more globalised, holistic approach to learning. It backs strategies that encourage collaborative learning and collective change-making. The analysis highlights the importance of fostering global solidarity among the world’s youth, aspiring to connect rather than divide them in the pursuit of quality education.

Notably, the analysis advocates for an egalitarian world trajectory, arguing for equal support for all, irrespective of geographical location. It unequivocally promotes equality and global solidarity, aligning with SDGs that are focused on reducing inequalities and building partnerships for the achievement of shared goals. In conclusion, the analysis paints a promising picture of how comprehensive, collaborative actions can contribute to a harmonious and equal world.

Speaker 2

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and corresponding emerging technologies have dramatically transformed the corporate landscape, especially in the clean tech sector. Companies have started capitalising on the transformative capacity of AI, utilising the voluminous data gathered by these systems to inform decision-making processes and sculpt their net-zero strategies. This positive disruption has not merely enhanced operational efficiency, but also contributed significantly to profitability by successfully discerning and addressing customer pain points through innovative business models.

Simultaneously, AI and these disruptive technologies have amplified the significance of corporate reporting on environmental impact. This emerging trend has been largely steered by the escalating interest of investors, activists, and other stakeholders in comprehending how company activities are impacting the environment. Reinforcing the necessity for such reporting, the Taskforce on Nature and Biodiversity has exhorted companies to document the influence of their operations on nature and biodiversity.

Nevertheless, despite their numerous benefits, emerging technologies present substantial challenges and risks. Foremost among these is their intense energy consumption, notably in the cases of data centres that are heavily reliant on such technologies. These escalate serious concerns about their potential detrimental environmental effects. Furthermore, inconsistencies have been observed with claims of companies falsely championing environmentally-friendly practices.

In response to this, there have been broad calls for enhanced government regulation. Supporters of this standpoint contend that to control the environmental impacts and ensure the security of the data associated with these technologies, more robust governmental oversight is warranted. Through proffering incentives and instigating legislative changes, the government can guarantee higher standards of data security, privacy, and ownership. Crucially, however, the fulfilment of such an outcome would require governments to significantly bolster their knowledge, capacity, and understanding of these complex and rapidly evolving technologies.

In conclusion, whilst the promise of emerging technologies, especially AI, in driving innovations in clean tech is undeniable, the possible detrimental environmental impact and data security risks they pose necessitate careful governmental regulation for sustainable and secure implementation.

Ingrid Volkmer

The analysis provides a thorough investigation into the complex relationship between Artificial Intelligence (AI), policy approaches, and the environmental impact thereof. It outlines the development of AI policy strategies, which were initially centred on national regulatory frameworks as of 2017, drawing light to the shift in 2019 when G7 digital ministers acknowledged our new reality – a reality wherein AI is a feature within internationally linked data spaces.

This global perspective on AI technology necessitates a fresh approach to policymaking, particularly considering the technology’s significant contribution to carbon emissions. The analysis emphatically advocates for a holistic approach to AI policies that duly incorporate environmental considerations. It critiques the shortcomings of focusing solely on sectors such as healthcare and agriculture, whilst glaringly ignoring the severe environmental repercussions associated with AI’s rapid expansion.

Moreover, the analysis shines a light on the persistent challenges faced by developing regions, specifically Nigeria and Argentina. It exposes a striking discrepancy between the projected enhancements AI would bring to renewable energy sources and the harsh reality of severe electricity problems and imbalances within national energy grids. For Argentina, the reliance on renewable energy sources is reportedly inadequate, accounting for a paltry 12% of total energy consumption.

It becomes quite evident that there is an urgent need to shift away from traditional nationalistic approaches. The pressing global need is for modern, fluid policies centred around environmental and climate-related issues to be developed, especially within the prevailing era of digitalisation. This substantial transition encapsulates the inherent value in adopting a global perspective, hallmarked by data fluidity and international digital integration.

In conclusion, the analysis strongly emphasises the importance of adopting an Earth-centric approach to safeguarding our planet in lieu of focusing on individual nations. It suggests the creation of innovative models designed to foster comprehension of this holistic perspective. The need to pay heed to a regulatory approach that surpasses territorial boundaries is underscored. This understanding is noteworthy as it contests the formerly accepted view of digital regulation and underscores the urgency required in engaging with the realities of our data-driven world. A comprehensive perspective, recognising the intricacies of global digital infrastructure, would undoubtedly lead to more effective policy implementation.

Doris Mwikali:
evening wherever you are. Please kindly allow us a couple more minutes to fix some last minute technical issues and we will start as soon as possible. Thank you so much. Okay, great. Thank you so much for your kind patience and sorry about the wait, we’re gonna get started. With that being said, I’m gonna invite our fantastic youth leader Doris, who’s our moderator for today to kindly introduce herself and get the session started. Doris, the floor is yours. Hello, everybody. Unfortunately, I’m unable to put my video on because of technical issues, but I’m so happy to see you all of you here and excited for this particular session. My name is Doris Mukali and I’m an STG for high level story and coding team member. And yeah, excited to share this particular session and looking forward to hearing all your great insights. So do we have Menti on so we can start because we’re running late? Fantastic, I can see that Menti is on and you can see how you can get Menti.com and use the code that is on the screen. Next slide, please. And you can also use the QR code over there to just log in with your phone. So the first question is, what are the top three technology? What are the top three technologies you spend your most time on? So it would be great if you could share your responses there. I can see four people online sharing their responses. Use the code to just log in directly or you can just go at Menti.com and use the code on the screen for you to share your responses with us. I can see that social media apps, websites, social media apps. Waiting for more responses. Google, WhatsApp, email, great. Internet, social media apps, WhatsApp. I mean, there’s nobody who uses TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, or X, now it’s called X. Oh, I can see Instagram, finally. Website, WhatsApp, great. I can see Caleb has shared his responses on the chat. And he says he uses WhatsApp, TikTok, Google, Workspace, and Twitter. Okay. Somebody else uses data analysis, stimulation, and chat. Okay, definitely. Very telling. As people put on more responses for this particular question, I think it would also like to move on to the next question, so that people can still be working on both questions. And our next question is, what stage of the technology lifecycle do you consider to be the most impactful to the environment? Oh, great. It’s a very interesting question. Looking for your insight. So we have seven people and we have four choices for you to make maturity, invention, growth, and decline. And you’re using the same Mentimeter. You can use the code or you can use the code on the screen to join and share your answers with us. And I’m so sorry that my video is not on, but I’m very enthusiastic about these questions and your answers. Very excited. So, do we have any responses or is it like a voting? So, I think we could still keep the Mentimeter on and you can feel free to share your insights as we continue with the conversation and this particular session and you can always circle back to see some of the interesting insights that you have shared with us on the Mentimeter. So, keep the Mentimeter link on with you and also use the code if you have any insights that you want to share during the conversation. So, we’re going to move to the next part of this particular session because we are running a bit behind time. And the second part of this particular conversation will be the keynote from Pedro. So, I’m just going to stop here and let that second part of the session take on. So, just give us a few minutes as we connect the video.

Speaker 1:
…amongst you today to share some thoughts and ideas on the importance of eco-friendly emerging technologies and the critical role of health. Dear guests, partners, and participants, first of all, allow me to thank the Internet Cooperative Forum for letting us host this workshop alongside our partner ITU and the Digital Policy Lab at the University of Melbourne in Australia, which I would also like to extend my gratitude to. And of course, all the participants that are joining us, thank you for supporting this event. It is really my pleasure to be here amongst you today to share some thoughts and ideas on the importance of promoting eco-friendly emerging technologies and the critical role of higher education in supporting… …supporting so. I don’t need to stress that technology is advancing at an unprecedented pace at the present moment. We have witnessed the rise of technologies such as ChildGPT, on which our institute has widely published. Artificial intelligence, same, we’ve just released a publication on the impact of artificial intelligence and higher education, blockchain, deep learning, and so on, to be incipient initiatives to take a prominent role in society. And we can expect… …for them to continue to do this in the foreseeable future. The 4.0 world is upon us. We believe this to be a positive sign as innovation continues to express itself in new tools that undoubtedly can help us in the future. Nonetheless, we do not believe this innovation must come at the cost of our planet. Therefore, higher education has the obligation to guide the bright minds of the future, not to only be environmental conscious, but to also push beyond and try to be regenerative as we must not only preserve what we have, but also reclaim spaces that have been lost in our fight against climate change. For this very reason, we have identified some key areas of focus for, as we say, greening higher education to achieve this vision. in this coming future. First of all, fostering a global consciousness. We must keep trying to allocate values such as global citizenship, ecological awareness, empathy, and resilience to highlight our interconnectedness and the importance of our shared world. This set of values must permeate the whole educational journey of the individual and the group. Second, seek new partnerships. Higher education has to try to seek a new model of partnerships. Governments, private sector, higher education institutions, and of course a wide range of stakeholders need to come together and create innovation clusters not only centered on research and development but also focused on training of education professionals and on bridging the gap to access to technological knowledge and resources to rethink them and create better solutions for our planet. And last but not least, probably the most important contribution of higher education is the push for new policies. Innovation is not exclusive to technology and our policymakers have to look for new ways to respond to the demands and problems that will appear due to the velocity in which new technologies are emerging and their impact on our societies and our citizens. Policy must be prepared for these new realities and not be fall behind it. I would like to finalize these short opening remarks by highlighting the theme of this 18th IGF, Empowering All People. If we look at the far-reaching capacity that young people, women, and many underrepresented groups can play in the process of educating, creating, implementing, and using eco-friendly technologies, we know that we should move from the mentality of leaving no one behind to letting everyone taking the pilot seat. It is time for everyone to be a main driver of a sustainable future and to join efforts to explore the foundation for eco-friendly technologies to be just, accessible, and ethical. You can count on UNESCO-ESALC in our commitment in greening higher education to support so. I wish you all a great workshop to start this exploration. Sincere thanks for your attention.

Doris Mwikali:
Such a great start to our session today. And to build on that, now we’ll be moving to the next part of the session by presentations on current work on emerging technologies and environmental efficiency. So we’re going to move back to that particular session to ensure that we build on a good foundation before we have our panelists joining in and sharing their insights about this very important topic. So I’m going to give the first presenter the floor. And yeah, looking forward to a very interesting presentation and very interesting discussion from all of you. Thank you. The first presentation will be from Lily, who is sharing her screen currently with very nice-looking slides.

Bosen Lily Liu:
Thank you so much, Doris. And thank you so much to Francesca in highlighting the importance of greening initiatives through the role of higher education and beyond. I mean, higher education is really the bridge that connects not only to other levels of education through, for example, the Teacher Training Institute in embedding the greening and environmental concept into education system, but more importantly, the bridge from knowledge to practices in the actual field to the industry, specifically to what we’re talking about today, to innovative industries. With that being said, the foundation of any other greening process starts with where innovation happens. And with that being said, it’s my great honor today to share with everyone an ITU technical report that we published in 2021 within the framework of RTVOfficial Intelligence for Environmental Efficiency Project. The technical report, it’s a global guideline on implementation of eco-friendly criteria for AI and other emerging technologies. And it’s also my honor today to be here with two of the co-authors of this global guideline, Professor Ingrid Walkmer and Professor Yunjin Wang, to provide further insight on what is actually being covered and what we hope to achieve in the area of emerging technology and environmental efficiency. If I may start, I would like to first present very quickly about the goal of the report is really the focus on SDG 13. And it’s important to find commonalities within the field of the industries and to involve different stakeholders to work towards the common goal of finding a middle ground, balancing the interests to a place where everyone should be somewhat comfortable understanding that little compromises in their practices can contribute greatly to SDG 13. And the scope of this ITU AI for Environmental Efficiency Project, it’s a very global project. It covers all five different regions of the UN. And the timeframe overall for this project was from mid-2020 all the way until 2022 with this particular report being produced from November to September with some consultation activities and expert brainstorming and working involving stakeholders from different industries in finding what are some of the dimensions that should be touched upon. And the framework of the report starts with having very basic yet necessary information identifying what it actually means by AI and what it means by emerging technology and actually finding the link between those identified technologies to environmental efficiency factors through an adjusted model of life cycle assessment of products with three main stages of environmental impact. And upon knowledge based on technology and the knowledge on life cycle assessment, we further provided both long-term and short-term strategies in responding or I would say calling for policymakers and calling for industry leaders and calling for just general citizens in participating in the process of greening innovation towards the greater benefit of SDG 13 with the consideration of what works at individual level and local level to serve the best. With that being said, if I may share briefly the very key identification of AI and emerging technology, we would say that the way we defined it is that emerging technology is a really broad term. It covers some of the very trendy like AI, like 3D printing, this and that. At the same time, it also leaves room for different countries, different institutions and different communities to identify what are the most commonly applied technologies. technology at that moment, so for others there may be blockchain, for some other there may be big data, to give a room on the technologies to, let’s say, to be identified in understanding their specific applications in the 16 domains. And the 16 domains have very high relevancy to the SDG overall, with some specific focus on education, health, industry, sorry, infrastructure, and energy. And upon that process of identifying emerging technology and what it actually means, the process on linking AI and other emerging technology with environmental efficiency started. As you can see, the very traditional model of lifecycle assessment, what you’re seeing on the left, involves five different stages. Well, when we conducted this knowledge at ITU, we decided to actually simplify it to three main stages, which include materia, usage, and end-of-life. And materia is basically anything that comes within, you know, raw material extraction, design, manufacturing, and when it moves to usage, the responsibility is not only on the, you know, the private sector that actually implemented or designed it, but also on the individuals who have those very daily interactions with them on understanding the operation, the consumption, the maintenance, and the repair that people can actually relate to as, you know, the first Menti question addressed. And then the third stage is end-of-life, which includes deconstruction, transport, waterways, disposal, recycling. And in recycling, there’s more than just, you know, tossing into a bin that someone will, you know, take care of it whatsoever. It actually highly refers to reuse, recovery, recycling, and remanufacturing, which some of our expert respondents will be addressing maybe later on. And now, without going really further into all the technologies or six domains, I would like to share very briefly to end this presentation on the guidelines and recommendation we provided. The first one, very importantly, is we need to have an evidence-based approach. So having data collection strategy before implementing any kinds of recommendation at policy level, at private sector level, at even individual level is very important to actually address local needs and ensure, you know, that decision making is based on the evidence. And second, it’s we recommended actions to be implemented at all three environmental stages for major emerging technologies. And third, in terms of possible actions, it’s not just from a technological perspective or an environmental perspective, but rather a techno-environmental perspective, blending in this mentality from the very beginning of designing this technology. And fourth, the guideline includes some very general recommendations for different stakeholders working in different industries who relate to AI and other emerging technologies. So to respond to the evidence-based approach, we have designed several instruments, specifically three generic survey templates, targeting different group of people in understanding where they stand, and where they should go moving forward with this eco-friendly emerging technology. So for the general citizens, who’s all related in some way to technology, there are seven questions. And in order to get more or less a valid response, we would hope to have around 500 to 1000 citizens, and information to be collected include their awareness, their perception, their known practices to actually enable climate neutral technology use, and the different levels of knowledge among citizens regarding environmental pollution and health in relation to such environmental pollution. And the second set of survey is targeting policymakers specifically. And if we’re looking at a global scope, once again, it will be you know, around 100 to 500 policymakers with 10 specific questions, understanding the existing policy. It’s where it stands now in terms of its implementation, including both the actual practices as well as the risks and challenges of the effectiveness of current policy, and what are some foreseen policy areas that can be useful to address those current concerns. And the third one, specifically target the private sector, the industry that are highly in charge of, you know, delivering those technology to response to national development plans, as well as to individuals. And there are about 11 questions. And the same, we’re aiming at the same number of executives, and hoping that the information can reflect, you know, some of the proactive sustainable measurements, some of the new climate friendly technologies that they’re inventing, or in or under design, and some of the sustainable energy solution in implementation, as well as their current strategy to minimize waste, either that’s their own choice, or is enforced by their state, or by their country. So with all those, we’re hoping eventually following this global guideline that we will have a some somewhat an idea of where a country or where a community stands in terms of moving forward with creating eco friendly technology policies, and also eco friendly policy system to further incentivize the greening technology process, which a lot of those information eventually can be retrieved back to education, because you know, the earlier our kids can start understanding those awareness of those concepts, the design, the better that they can have those awareness into their their actions, either individual institutional or national level into their future. I wouldn’t go really into the contextualization part, I know we are short on time. But the whole idea is for the general survey is really targeting all the relevant stakeholders. Well, some of the contextualized question depending on which country or community you are targeting in, it’s very important to first identify the emerging technology in that particular context, and the environmental responses towards it. Let’s see. So I would say that there are some sample recommendations. And on Oh, sorry, there are some sample, whoops. Okay, there are some sample recommendations on AI. And there are some sample actions for different applications. So we, when we drafted the report, we basically divided that for certain technologies, we have recommendations for the three stages material use and end of life. And for some of the very generic ones upon or cut across different emerging technologies, we had some key themes, for example, consumption, for example, recycling, I wouldn’t go into details, I will share the link of the global guideline. So if you want to read it later, there will be more information on it. And in terms of the very general recommendation for stakeholders, we have divided it into development, deployment, business, the market regulations, policy and standard, which also cut across the different process of, of technology. And we we try as much as we can now to provide too many recommendations to be overwhelming. But somewhere to start with, for example, for regulations, policies and standard, echoing back to what Frances just mentioned, a multi stakeholder engagement, and engaging in, you know, new partnership models can support with this process of you know, greening, of greening innovation. And for, for business and market, you know, a lot of innovation, although they’re just really emerging and pop are really fast, go away really fast. It’s important to have those ultra long term financing and investment strategies to support with the greening process and also as an incentive. With that being said, I will end right here and I would give the floor to Ingrid to actually discuss some of the initiatives and the actions that have been taken place upon conclusion of this guideline, but a new start for action. So Ingrid, the floor is yours.

Ingrid Volkmer:
Could you bring up my slides, please? Okay. Hi, everyone. My name is Ingrid Volkmar. I’m a professor at the University of Melbourne. I’m also directing a digital policy lab at the University of Melbourne and this is one of our projects. What I want to talk about today is in a way a glimpse into our research. This is a project that’s currently being undertaken and we are looking at the very different approaches to AI policy across countries, across the global north and the global south. And the reason is that, as you know, AI is a globalized technology. It will be a game changer in many ways. And that is why we feel new policy approaches are needed, especially when thinking about AI environment, reduction of emissions, carbon neutrality, etc. While AI is often portrayed as being not very energy intensive, the context, the technological context, the ecosystems around AI are not carbon neutral and they are producing a lot of emissions. So it is really important to take a full look at this new picture and this new reality we are seeing and think about in a creative way perhaps about policy frameworks around environment, carbon neutrality in a new AI world. So far we basically talk about generative AI and the implications on education, the implications on politics, the implications on journalism. But AI and specifically generative AI will be also a game changer in creating new technologies, creating new ecosystems. So that is another reason why digital policy around environment and climate in context of AI is specifically needed. And I now go to my first slide. So in this study we are looking, as I said, across the world and what I can do here is only portray a few of these insights. So what is really interesting is that AI policies or AI strategies by governments or nations started in 2017, but in very different ways. While AI and as we see also other technology monopolies operate around the world and create monopolies and create globalized ecosystems, policies are still national, territorial, looking at national practices. So the first generation national strategies around AI were basically around the definition of national regulatory motives and themes of AI. And just some examples in China in 2017 AI development plan was created, AI was seen as a driver of the industry, education skills, standard setting, ethical norms and security to become a world-leading AI tech country in 2025 and so on. Similar in Singapore, similar in Canada, but again very nuanced differences we see here in United Arab Emirates. AI policies meant to be developing skill sets of workforces, integrate AI into medical security services and so on. But there are also countries in the global south that already in 2017-18 started to look at AI as a policy, into a policy strategy. So in Mexico AI was meant to increase the competitiveness of companies and inclusion, driving the data and digital infrastructure, supporting cyber security, ethics, research and so on. In India in 2018 national AI strategy was meant to support healthcare, agriculture, etc. Nobody talked about environment around AI at that time, which of course had to do with the technology status of AI at the time. A second generation AI strategy domain, if you like, began in 2019, where these focus on enhancing security and protection of human dignity. That is where AI was already seen as human-centric AI, creating diversity, inclusion, sustainability. In Japan, in Canada Artificial Intelligence and Data Act was passed to manage the risk and the information disclosure around AI systems, etc. You see this on this slide. But then what was really interesting, there was a shift in 2020, 2022 sorry, in Germany when the G7 digital ministers met and what they were creating was not so much reproducing the sovereignty approach to AI governance or the national approach to AI governance in an intergovernmental way, what we also see at the OECD or UNESCO and others, but what they started saying is that we are now living in a reality of international data spaces and that was in my view a real big shift away from this paradigm of the sovereign territorial regulation of AI and other technologies or intergovernmental regulations. Now we are looking at, according to the G7 digital ministers, into an international data space and I feel this was a real, is a paradigm shift that we need to take on board more. What they say is in dialogue with stakeholders from the private sector, civil society and academia, we will seek ways to better harness digital technologies for a net zero nature positive and resource effective economy and digital ecosystem, recognizing the importance of more holistic measurement of all impacts of digitalization on the environment and climate, so to increase energy and resource efficiency in the use of digital technologies and services, such as data centers and telecommunication networks and this is one of the most coherent lists of all sorts of environmental issues that need to be addressed in AI policies, but they have been brought up through this perspective of international data spaces. We normally in digital policy frameworks don’t talk about international data spaces, this is the first time and this is a really important shift in these debates and I would argue that this shift needs now to be taken on to meet the challenges of the future, so it is this holistic data space, international data spaces, but we also need to look at a holistic planetary environment in context of AI and environment policy, so it’s no longer global north, global south being divided by environmental policies, but we need to look at both global south and north. In Nigeria, the e-waste from the US is being burned and being sent from the US to Nigeria, being burned and all this the smoke and all these fumes etc. come up, go up into the air and into the atmosphere for all of us. So we can’t just look at this in a sovereign space anymore. And this idea of the digital, of the data spaces is really a very good approach for policy frameworks perhaps to also link this much, much closer to a holistic perspective of implications on a planetary interconnected, interdependent environment. And that is really important. So it could also address the growing magnitude of an interrelated international data space and its implications on the planetary environments, which is not possible in the frameworks we have today. What we are seeing today is really a fragmentation of policy debates around AI and environment. So there are intergovernmental organizations that address specific growth sectors, for example, OECD. There are others who measure, look at carbon footprints, et cetera. But these are all interconnected, or disconnected rather, debates, fragmented debates. And we need a holistic approach to this as well. Furthermore, data spaces should also look at households. And it’s not sufficient, the metrics we are having, which are looking at predictions of the future developments of certain technologies, of drones, of mobile phones, of all these other devices. But as we heard in the earlier speech by Lily Liu, we need to look at this holistic technological environment and ecosystem as well here. And we need to look at the global north and south at the same time. So this idea of international data spaces, a holistic planetary perspective, I think is needed to solve the problems we are having today. And also, just a final note on this, yes, data centers. We know that Google, Facebook, and Meta, et cetera, they are aiming to reach carbon neutrality through different means, through carbon offsets, or through solar, using solar power. But there are numerous other data centers, smaller data centers, which are not operating along those lines. And this data center issue needs to be addressed as well on a global scale and not just a national scale. And just to show you some of the issues countries of the global south have in this space, here is some examples from Nigeria. Nigeria is aware of the importance of AI, its benefit to the economy. They are producing all sorts of national centers for AI robotics. But in terms of energy, AI has been considered as a major way of enhancing renewables. But at the same time, the country has massive electricity problems. So these are really these imbalances we are seeing if we are looking across global north and global south in a planetary perspective. And then we can interpret these sorts of policy frameworks in a perhaps new way. This is an example from Argentina. I will just skip this, but it’s similar. It reflects the specific country perspectives and the imbalances within a country and also the relation of energy and data centers to the national energy grids, which are often, like in the case of Argentina, fossil-fueled and with only 12% of energy consumption coming from renewable sources in the national energy grid. So these are also issues that have to be addressed. And similar in India, there are also these imbalances on a national scale. But I think it’s time to produce a global map, perhaps, of these national perceptions of planetary holistic AI climate issues and policies. Thank you.

Doris Mwikali:
Thank you so much, Ingrid and Lili, for your great presentations. Now to further discuss the presentations made by Lili and Ingrid, we’re going to have a discussion, a 10-minute discussion, where we’re going to have respondents who are going to be giving us insights in terms of what are their insights on these presentations made by both Lili and Ingrid on artificial intelligence. So our first respondent will be Ola. If Ola would take the mic and give us just some of the reactions that she has from these particular presentations in terms of the recommendations and in terms of the foundation that it sets for this particular session. So Ola, the floor is yours. And looking forward to hearing your reactions on these two amazing presentations. Thank you.

Speaker 2:
Thank you very much. Can you hear me? Very well. Thank you very much for the two presentations. I’m going to be talking from the private sector perspective. I have my background in financial and risk management within the energy sector. And I have been interested in energy transition and sustainability and all the emerging innovations that would hopefully get us to net zero someday soon. So with regards to the two presentations that we’ve listened to today, I’m going to be looking at the pros and cons of AI and emerging technology from a private sector perspective. We all know, like you’ve said in the presentation, that AI and other emerging technologies have come to disrupt the way we have worked, the way companies have worked. And especially with the need to get to net zero, companies have been looking for different innovative ways to develop their clean energy strategy. And it has therefore redefined the way the different organizations work. The innovation has driven clean technology. And renewable energy companies have been able to use a lot of data, which they have been able to garner together from using AI to make decisions and to meet their strategies. And also, the emerging technologies and AI has also helped with helping with pain points, the customer experiences. So the companies have used the pain points to create new and value-adding business models that is leading to customer satisfaction today. And that has helped them with profitability and also meeting their net zero strategy. One very important area that we need to emphasize is also the fact that investors have been very interested in what companies are doing with their money and how it affects the environment. And there has been quite a few reporting guidelines that have come out. Companies are now required to report on the environmental impact of their activities. And with the use of AI and emerging technologies, companies have had to state what the impact is. And with that requirement, they are therefore obliged to make sure that any negative externality. to the environment is quickly curbed. And investors have been asking a lot of questions on the impact of the company’s activity on the environment. Just in September, the tax force on nature and biodiversity decided that companies have to now report on the impact of their activities on nature and biodiversity. Again, with the use of AI and other emerging technologies, companies will now find it easier to capture those issues and to do something about those issues quickly before those impacts, those negative externalities, before they get out of hand. These emerging technologies also have helped with job creation because there have been quite a number of startups that have been created in the area of AI and a lot of other technologies that were mentioned earlier, and this has boosted income and also GDP. What the AI and other technologies have also done is to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion. So there has been talent creation and retention. What we know is that AI will continue to improve and AI companies will continue to also embrace the circular economy. So materials will be reused, there’ll be recycling of machines, and we hope that this would create sustainable companies in the future. There are still some disadvantages today with the emerging technologies. They’re very energy intensive, like was mentioned earlier, but different data centers do use a lot of technologies. So we expect that government regulations would come in to, government will come in to regulate these data centers. And we also understand that there’s been quite a bit of brainwashing, you know, where companies may state what they’re doing with copying the environmental impact, but that hasn’t really been effective. So we believe that government regulations will come in to help with that. Also, in terms of the incentives, again, government policy should be an incentive. There should be support from financial institutions and funding agencies to help with the development of this technology and the ability to control the environmental impact. And we saw from the African Climate Summit that just concluded in Nairobi, quite a number of funding institutions have committed quite substantial funds to help the countries to get to net zero. Substantial amount of, substantial part of those funds will be spent on developing technologies that will help them to get to net zero. We believe also that the government should create institutional changes that would help with data security, data privacy, and data ownership. And government should also build knowledge. They should build capacity and understanding. That’s, those are my comments.

Doris Mwikali:
Thank you so much, Ola, for your interventions and sharing with us your perspective on our private sector. And I know that we are short on time, so we’re gonna be moving on to the responses from the other respondents, and then we’re gonna have an opportunity from our, an opportunity for our audience to ask questions in terms of this very particularly important discussion and hear their reactions about both the interventions by our panelists and also the reactions from the two presentations from our presenters, who was Lily and Ingrid. So the next respondent would be Abi. And as Abi gives her reactions to the presentation, I would also just like to ask the question that, given her passion on clean energy and green economy at future perspectives, how does she see the role of civil society as she gives her responses to those particular presentations? So if she could just cover those two questions, that would be amazing. So, Abi, you have the floor.

Speaker 3:
Thank you so much, Doris, for giving me the floor. I represent Future Perspectives, a non-profit organization that inspires the youth to spearhead in terms of, revolution, in championing education reform and propelling investments in innovation, obviously to solve modern issues that we have like climate action or climate change. Obviously we know that in being able to address these pressing challenges requires a multifaceted approach. And we believe that as advocates of Africa, our organization needs to foster civil societies or nations need to foster a collaborative system that values knowledge sharing. We also believe that the governments, businesses, foundations, universities, and other key design interventions geared at delivering systematic, scalable, and sustainable impact. From our perspective, some of the ways that we’ve seen that we can help to impact policy at the community level is by having convened spaces to facilitate meaningful and inclusive dialogue, as well as create platforms to spotlight innovations. We believe capacity building and skills enhancements to drive youth leadership and action is really important. Obviously also providing our youth the opportunity to be able to engage in cutting edge thought leadership on key issues is really important. Shaping new narratives and shaping innovators through immersive storytelling. Again, coming from the youth perspective, we believe that these are opportunities that civil society and foundations can really help. These policies that can support eco-friendly technology. And also we believe that the youth have to be prominently woven into global conversations and that their participation and activism will not only create a profound impact bringing forth the, not just Africa, but the global world needs. We know to sit at a table and their collective power. and also equipping them with the necessary knowledge, skills, and tools. We obviously to unleash, you know, really great policies and technology and innovation. We’re really, really yearns for. So we believe that the civil society and, you know, foundations as a whole, they play a really critical role to as well, you know, from a with. As well, I mean, ensuring that we provide this nonpartisan. The four people depend no matter. You know, creed and as well as bringing in the marginalized communities, as Lily had mentioned in her presentation, that they’re all integrated into those conversations, because they’re the ones feeling the brunt of the the issues that at stake. And they’re the ones also coming up with the solutions. Make sure that they have a seat at the table to help ensure that those those solutions that are coming, coming to play are coming from those people who are greatly affected by the current. Thank you. Thank you so much, Abby, for sharing your perspectives on the role of civil society,

Doris Mwikali:
ensuring that we create policies for environmental friendly policies. So we’ve had like interventions from the private sector. We’re cutting interventions from the civil society. And I think it’s about time we hear the response from one who is going to be given the perspective on higher learning. Like what is the role of educators in ensuring that we are creating an ecosystem or a foundation of creating this particular process? So the flow is yours and looking forward to your insights. Thank you. Thank you, Doris.

Speaker 4:
Thank you all for having me here. I’m Yongjing Yongjing Wang. I’m an associate professor with the School of Engineering, the University of Birmingham in the UK. I’m not just a university academic. I’m also a practicing engineer. I’ve been involved in national, international innovation and engineering programmes, in particular in the area of robots and automation and digital technologies to support circular economy. So I’m more speaking or perhaps from two perspectives from my two roles. One will be about from a university’s point of view. The second will be about from the technical and technological development point of view. So from the from the university’s point of view, I think if we’re looking at the question, how how universities can can be deeply involved and contribute to the eco-friendly emerging technologies in the area of AI and other areas. And I think actually many universities are already deeply involved in particular in, for example, like here in the UK. We are being responsible engineers is part of our teaching module is actually in the core of the teaching. And I know in many other countries, we there are similar schemes. So I feel I feel that based on my experience with how to motivate for universities to support eco-friendly development is to have both internal and external factors ready to create such an environment for the internal factors. Basically, we’re looking at, do we have the right people in the universities and in the higher education sector to deliver the eco-friendly, to deliver the eco-friendly emerging technologies? We as practicing engineers are already responsible engineers. Are we aware of what are happening, what are considered important to to the long term sustainable development goals? So that that is about the internal factor, about the external factor. Actually, a key I think I think that is the key difference. For example, I mean, for some universities, for some engineering degrees or or technology degrees, we are actually bounded by the requirement by professional engineering bodies. So professional engineering bodies can request for being responsible and being considerate in terms of in terms of engineering and innovation and AI and how these technologies can affect our environment. Actually, the training of of this awareness and the training of of being responsible and being considerate is raised by the professional engineering engineering bodies. And in some countries, they are raised by government. So we have that requirement. And that is a key reason for many universities to be active. And another key external factor is for many leading universities, in particular, those research intensive universities, many research directions are can be affected by research councils and research funding bodies. And that means how what is the position of eco friendly development in those research councils in in those research funding bodies? And that could affect how deep the university can be involved. So I feel in terms of in terms of the what what the what we can do in the future. And also after hearing the two presentations, I feel actually it is just the beginning is just the beginning of something. And and I feel actually the eco friendly eco friendly development of emerging and AI technologies can be separated into two areas. One is more about itself, how AI tools, what is the environment efficiency? What is the environment impact of AI tools and techniques? That would be one area. And the other area is how we can use AI tools to achieve circular economy. So these two are very, very two different topics. And we need two different measure measurement systems for these two topics. And then we can think about how these measurements systems can in fact, the internal factors and external factors. And that would that would create a much greater boost to to to to the eco development or being responsible in terms of AI development. Thank you.

Doris Mwikali:
Thank you so much for sharing your interventions. I think we have had a particularly productive session by the two presentations from really and the responses from our respondents. So I’d like to take like this particular opportunity to open the flow to the people that have joined us from around the world to just respond one, either to key insights that they have from the two presentations or any reactions they have from the insight that have been shared from an academic perspective, and also a practicing engineer perspective, a private sector perspective, and also the perspective of the role of the civil society. So if anybody has any responses, there’s an opportunity to interact and to be part of the session. You could just raise your hand and I’ll give you an opportunity to ask a question or to just share your insights from either your background, your context or from whatever you’re joining. us from any part of the world. This is the opportunity to do so. And yeah, the floor is yours. So just raise your hand and I’ll be able to give you the opportunity to do so. And it’s so unfortunate that you can’t see my face, but I’m very eager to see all of your responses from the interventions and from the presentations. So please do feel encouraged to do so. Just raise your hand, introduce yourself, tell us where you’re joining from, and ask us a question or share your insights either or both.

Bosen Lily Liu:
Thank you so much, Doris. And it’s so nice to hear from our expert respondents from academia perspective to a society and private sector on how to not only work on themselves, but really to find a synergy to work together. If I may add, meanwhile, waiting for questions from our participants, this is really the importance of engaging the global south. I mean, a lot of times when we look at the involvement of environmental policies in relation to technology, it’s almost by default that we go to the global north where a lot of innovations take place. And they’re the icebreaker into certain industries through innovation. However, the impact is global. It’s very, very important that we understand the global sales perspective on where they stand in interpreting such designs, in interpreting such consequences, and in interpreting what kind of benefit and what kind of risks that can bring to their actually very high achieving SDG 13 figures. I mean, a very shocking moment throughout my work is when I look at the SDG 13 progress comparing with other SDGs. It’s almost like the Africa area is red, meaning it’s less advanced in other SDG areas. When it moves to SDG 13, there’s a lot of green, which means they’re actually really advanced. So when we look at those policies, especially for the global north participants, is there something that by engaging the global south stakeholders that we can learn from them, that we can have an equal conversation, that we can flip the traditional model of having this shared responsibility, and actually involve them in their experiences to protect the environment, in their experiences to use innovation effectively, and in understanding more or less the global demand on where innovation can go and should go for the better good, instead of from the material stage, where there’s a lot of natural resource involved, to the usage stage, where, you know, sometimes infrastructure is not even there, to the recycling stage, where sometimes certain places in the world are considered as the trash hub for those electronic devices. Can we rethink this model and to create a more equal world? Thank you so much. Back to you, Doris, and see if there’s any participant who

Doris Mwikali:
would want to get engaged. Thank you so much, Lily, for sharing your insights with us, and just talking about how this all links to the STG 2030 agenda, and how we should all have, like, a collective action towards ensuring that we have more equality and more inclusivity in terms of the power dynamics of having these particular conversations between the global north and the global south. So I think that’s a very important point to have in mind. So once again, I’m extending the opportunity from our audience, not only just to ask questions or to react to the presentations given, but also to share their aspirations in terms of this particular important conversation. So as we wait for the audience to raise up their hands and share those interventions, I would like also to give just two minutes to our respondents, and also Ingrid, who was part of the people that shared our presentations with us, to share any aspirations they have in terms of how we could move forward, any concrete steps on what happens after this particular session. What is your call to action moving forward in terms of policy creation? Just basically a summary of this session, or some of the key insights that you have gotten as part of the session. So we’re going to start from Ingrid, and then we’re going to move to Abby, and then we’re going to go to Wong. As I can see, Ola on the chat has already had to leave for an important meeting she had to attend. So unfortunately, we won’t be able to get those insights from Ola, but we’re going to have those insights from the rest of the panel. Thank you.

Ingrid Volkmer:
We are at the beginning of something new, perhaps, and we have to start thinking fresh in this environment. And that’s something that relates to education, as we heard from Lily and others, that also relates to training of young generations, but that also relates to how we phrase and frame digital policies around environment and climate. And I feel that for too long, we are so glued to this idea of the sovereign national perspective on regulating digital sites, on regulating social media, on regulating misinformation, as we see governments trying to do today. But these approaches often fail, because we are living in a new globalized, fluid data world, where we need new approaches. And I think to look at the environment, that clearly shows that national territorial approaches have reached their limitations, and we might need to think about something like digital or eco-sovereignty, perhaps, a new idea of sovereignty, where it comes through clearly that we are thinking about a new planetary perspective, and safeguarding the planet, and not just countries, global north, global south, but we need to look and develop more models that help us understand such a holistic perspective. Thank you.

Doris Mwikali:
Thank you so much, Ingrid, for sharing your insights on the importance of empowering young people through education, and the importance of also having young people and doing that through education. So, I’m going to give the next opportunity to Arby to share her two-minute interventions, or less, on the conclusion of this particular session of the Insights. Thank you, Arby. Arby, you’re breaking. We can’t hear you clearly.

Speaker 3:
Can you hear me now? Yes, perfect. Okay. I want to agree with Ingrid. When you look at it from the young people perspective, it’s a very holistic world right now, where it doesn’t matter if you’re in Nigeria, or you could be in Australia. Technology has really helped to integrate people together. So, I think we need to do the same thing in our approach with young people, in terms of making sure that, you know, like… As Ingrid said, it’s not a sovereignty divide or a global north or a global south, but seeing how we can integrate everyone together and have a holistic approach as we start to look at emerging technologies that can support, obviously, individual countries, but at the end of the day, really looking at it from a holistic perspective as to how do we support the world and the planet, and then going from that perspective. That’s one of the things that we’re going to be working at future perspectives is really bringing the young people together from all parts of the world and to see how we can learn from each other and create these that can really change the trajectory of where we are today. Thank you.

Doris Mwikali:
Thank you so much, Abby, for building on the interventions from Ingrid. Now we’re going to have Wang who’s going to be giving the last interventions on his concluding insights about this particular topic.

Speaker 4:
Right. Thank you, Doris. Thank you, everyone. I feel actually the discussion today really highlights the importance of engagement for a discussion like this. This needs to happen to a wider group of people and having a wider engagement and to involve key stakeholders and to get stakeholders sitting together, I mean, to have the innovators, the policymakers, to industrial partners and industrial players, in particular, the sector leading organizations involved in the discussion. And this would make, create more aligned information flow. And I think many discussion we have had today and also is not widely received by some key stakeholders in the area. The second is I agree with Ingrid’s point about this challenge in regulating challenges in terms of the international data exchange, and that could not be solved with just one nation or several nations effort. But I also want to highlight that this problem is coupled with many national challenges as well. For example, the data protection and data regulatory laws or any policy in many ways can be crossed with the IEP protection and with export control requirement. In many cases, the changes to the policy about data would require actually an update to how we can protect IEP intellectual property and how the export control could be applied to many countries. But I feel that if we step back and look at from a human being’s historical perspective, actually I feel that AI is not as special as we thought. I think if we look at the technological development in history, pretty much everything, every engineering outcome has positive and negative impacts. So all the way from nuclear technology to plastic to even robots and robots and labor, what is the relationship between robots and labor? And don’t forget robot was created nearly half a century ago and started to be used over half a century ago. So already had very good lessons in the past than how we can deal with the relationship of technologies and with our society. And in many ways, I feel we need to be creative in terms of finding solutions, looking for solutions. But also, I think we also need to take a cross-disciplinary approach and look at what lessons we have used in the past, we have learned in the past, and what tools we have as human beings we have experience with. These tools can also be applied to the use of AI for eco-friendly development. Thank you.

Doris Mwikali:
Thank you so much for sharing your insights in terms of the need for multidisciplinary approach, the need of ensuring that we have a very keen focus on understanding that this is not a new challenge, it has a historical perspective and how we can be able to go about it to create more effective policies. At this juncture, if we don’t have any questions or any reactions from the audience, I think because we are running a bit out of time, it will be time for us to conclude this fantastic conversation. Just listening to all the insights, I think the three key things that stand out for me is the need not to just have these conversations between people that are already practitioners in terms of creation of effective policies, but to have intergenerational conversations or intergenerational ownership of this particular policy creation, ensuring that there are effective consultancies from civil society, private sector, young people, academics, and people working on even the construction of these new technologies. I think the next key point that came out very strongly during the session is the need to have education as a foundational basis of this particular creation of effective policies, whether that is in the funding of new research, in terms of ensuring that it’s an evidence-based process, or that is educating the next generation of young people for them to be able to effectively interact with these new technologies. And I think that what came out very strongly is that we need to have collective action. It’s not one particular player that’s going to be able to create effective policies. It has to be collective action from every particular stakeholder, and therefore, having that multidisciplinary research or multidisciplinary collective action, as we heard from this particular session, from the private sector, civil society, academics. So I think those are the three key issues that came out from this particular session. I think it’s been fantastic for me to moderate and to listen in on all the amazing work that our panelists, our respondents are doing, and also from the two presentations that we had from Ingrid and Lili that give very key, concrete, and pragmatic recommendations on what we can do moving forward. So with that, I think it’s been fantastic moderating this from Nairobi, although it’s literally 4 p.m. 4 a.m. in the morning, but it’s been amazing being with you. It’s a very good start for my Sunday. And yeah, unfortunately, I do not have my video on, but you all have that old picture of mine from 2020. That’s how I looked during COVID. I was trying to smile through the pandemic. I don’t know whether it worked, but it’s been fantastic having all of you here. And thank you for joining us from whatever part of the world that you’re from. And yeah, I hope that all of you have a fantastic time during this particular summit discussing emerging technologies, internet, and how the world can best respond to our advances in technology to progress humanity and not to bring us back behind. So thank you and have a fantastic morning, evening, from wherever you’re from. Have a great day. Thank you all and enjoy IGF. Thank you. Thank you all. Bye bye.