[Parliamentary Session 7] Building parliamentary capacity to effectively shape the digital realm

Summary

This panel discussion focused on building parliamentary capacity to effectively shape the digital realm, particularly in relation to artificial intelligence (AI) and data governance. Experts from various organizations, including ICANN, GIZ, Google, and UNESCO, shared insights on how parliamentarians can engage with digital policymaking and capacity building initiatives.

The discussion highlighted the importance of multi-stakeholder collaboration in addressing the challenges of regulating AI and managing data in the digital age. Panelists emphasized the need for parliamentarians to receive specialized training and resources to understand complex technological issues. They also stressed the importance of balancing innovation with responsible regulation, particularly in emerging markets and the Global South.

Key topics included the harmonization of digital policies across countries, the role of international organizations in providing capacity building, and the challenges of data colonialism. The panelists discussed various approaches to AI regulation, from risk-based frameworks to more flexible, principles-based guidelines. They also addressed the tension between the need for regulation and the risk of stifling innovation.

Participants raised concerns about the lack of technical knowledge among many parliamentarians and the need for more targeted capacity building efforts. The discussion touched on the importance of considering cultural and regional contexts in digital policymaking, particularly in the Middle East and Africa.

Overall, the panel concluded that effective digital governance requires a collaborative approach involving governments, international organizations, the private sector, and civil society. The experts agreed that while AI regulation is necessary, it must be done thoughtfully and with a deep understanding of the technology’s potential benefits and risks.

Keypoints

Major discussion points:

– The need for capacity building and education for parliamentarians on digital/AI issues

– Balancing regulation of AI with fostering innovation

– Data governance, data sharing, and concerns about “data colonialism”

– The role of international organizations and private companies in shaping digital policies

– Approaches to AI regulation, including risk-based and principles-based frameworks

The overall purpose of the discussion was to explore how parliamentarians and parliaments can build capacity to effectively shape digital policies and navigate the challenges and opportunities of digital transformation.

The tone of the discussion was collaborative and solution-oriented. Panelists acknowledged the complexity of the issues but focused on practical ways to increase parliamentary engagement and knowledge. There was a sense of urgency about the need for parliamentarians to become more involved in digital policymaking, balanced with caution about over-regulating too quickly. The tone became more action-oriented towards the end as panelists offered specific resources and opportunities for parliamentarians to engage further on these topics.

Speakers

– Rima Al-Yahya: Moderator, Member of the Shura Council

– Franz von Weizsäcker: Head of Program Citizens’ Engagement and Innovation Data Use for Africa’s Development, GIZ

– Beckwith Burr: ICANN board member, Partner at Harris, Wiltshire & Granus LLP

– Olga Skorokhodova: Government Affairs and Public Policy Emerging Markets, Head of CACASIS, Central Asia, and Russia, Google

– Cedric Wachholz: Chief Section for Digital Policy and Digital Transformation in UNESCO

– Audience: Various parliamentarians and attendees who asked questions

Additional speakers:

– Maha Abdel Nasser: Egyptian parliamentarian

– Catherine Mumma: Senator from Kenya

– Al-Hajji: Member of Parliament from Gambia and the Pan-African Parliament

– Jamal Fakhro: From Bahrain

– Dr. Abadi: Unspecified role/country

– Dr. Saleh: Unspecified role, likely from Saudi Arabia

Parliamentary Capacity Building for Digital Governance: A Multi-Stakeholder Approach

This panel discussion, moderated by Rima Al-Yahya of the Shura Council, explored the critical issue of building parliamentary capacity to effectively shape the digital realm, with a particular focus on artificial intelligence (AI) and data governance. Experts from various organisations, including ICANN, GIZ, Google, and UNESCO, shared insights on how parliamentarians can engage with digital policymaking and capacity building initiatives.

Key Themes and Discussions

1. ICANN’s Role in Internet Governance

Beckwith Burr, ICANN board member, outlined ICANN’s crucial role in coordinating the global Internet’s unique identifier systems, including domain names and IP addresses. She emphasized ICANN’s multi-stakeholder model, which brings together governments, civil society, and industry to develop policies. Burr highlighted ICANN’s capacity building programs, stating, “We have training programs, we have a lot of resources available for parliamentarians who want to understand how the Internet works.”

2. Capacity Building for Parliamentarians

A central theme was the urgent need for capacity building among parliamentarians to address the knowledge gap in digital technologies and AI. Honourable Al-Hajji, a Member of Parliament from Gambia and the Pan-African Parliament, highlighted this issue: “We have very, very, very few members of parliament that actually understand technology. I am an exception because I’m a software developer and I’ve been in the field for 25 years now, but I’m one in maybe hundreds or 200 members of parliament.”

To address this gap, panelists offered various solutions:

– Cedric Wachholz of UNESCO highlighted their capacity building workshops and online courses for parliamentarians, including a comprehensive AI curriculum.

– Olga Skorokhodova from Google discussed AI academies and online courses for policymakers in emerging markets, emphasizing the importance of “getting AI right requires a team effort across stakeholders.”

– Franz von Weizsäcker of GIZ mentioned their support for regional parliamentary networks and capacity building initiatives.

3. Approaches to AI Regulation

The discussion on AI regulation revealed a nuanced debate about balancing innovation with risk management. Von Weizsäcker advocated for a risk-based and tiered regulatory approach, citing the European model: “The European approach on AI is putting things into different risk categories. And when you’re dealing with biometric data of the entire population and very private information and so on, that’s a high-risk environment.”

Skorokhodova emphasized Google’s commitment to responsible AI development, stating, “AI is too important not to regulate, but it’s also too important not to regulate well.” She outlined Google’s AI principles and their practical application in product development.

Wachholz discussed UNESCO’s work on AI ethics and governance, including the development of a global standard-setting instrument on AI ethics. He stressed the importance of using existing laws to limit AI risks while developing more comprehensive frameworks.

4. Data Governance and Economic Development

The discussion touched on the crucial role of data governance in economic development, particularly in emerging markets. Von Weizsäcker emphasized the importance of data sharing across borders for economic development in Africa, while Skorokhodova highlighted the necessity of local data availability for developing AI applications.

The concept of “data colonialism” was raised, with concerns about fair benefits from data for countries in the Global South. Von Weizsäcker suggested, “We need to harmonize our data policies in order to be able to negotiate with global tech companies.” This led to discussions about regional approaches to data governance, such as the African Union’s efforts to develop a unified framework.

5. Saudi Arabian Approach to AI and Data Governance

Dr. Saleh shared insights on Saudi Arabia’s approach to AI and data governance, highlighting the country’s efforts to balance innovation with ethical considerations. He mentioned the establishment of the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) and the development of a national data strategy.

6. Multi-stakeholder Collaboration

A recurring theme was the importance of multi-stakeholder collaboration in digital policymaking. Burr highlighted ICANN’s role in facilitating collaboration between governments, civil society, and industry. Wachholz emphasized UNESCO’s position as a neutral broker bringing a multi-stakeholder approach to digital governance issues.

Audience Engagement

The audience, comprising various parliamentarians and attendees, raised questions about specific challenges in their countries and regions. Concerns were expressed about the digital divide, the need for localized AI solutions, and the challenges of regulating global tech companies at a national level.

Conclusion

The moderator, Rima Al-Yahya, concluded by emphasizing the critical importance of building parliamentary capacity to shape the digital realm. She stressed that informed decision-making by parliamentarians is crucial for developing effective and balanced digital policies that serve the interests of all stakeholders.

As von Weizsäcker aptly noted, “The internet is global and legislation is national. That creates an inherent tension in all of our efforts and it creates the need to put efforts into harmonisation.” This observation encapsulates the ongoing challenge in digital governance: balancing national interests with the global nature of technology and data flows.

The discussion pointed towards a need for continued dialogue, targeted capacity building initiatives, and collaborative efforts to develop flexible, effective frameworks for governing the digital realm. The engagement of parliamentarians in this process was deemed crucial for ensuring that digital policies are shaped by informed, democratically elected representatives who understand both the potential and the risks of emerging technologies.

Rima Al-Yahya: Good afternoon, everyone. I would like to welcome you all once again to Saudi Arabia. It is a country where visions become concrete and dreams become reality. My name is Dr. Reema Al Yahya, and I am a member of the Shura Council, and I will be moderating today’s session on building parliamentary capacity to effectively shape the digital realm. So, wow, what an amazing two days it has been so far, and there’s still so much to come. But what I noticed while attending the previous sessions, whether the discussion was on navigating an era of digital transformation or global digital cooperation and priorities or developing large-scale AI systems and digital innovations, is that the ultimate core of the talk will always stress the importance of building capacity. Yesterday, Senator Shuaib, and I’m going to quote you, Salisa stated, what you don’t know you can’t give. And that is totally true. This session will discuss what parliaments and parliamentarians need in order to play a full role in shaping digital policies and how to build capacity in parliaments, as well as navigating the challenges and the opportunities of the digital transformation era. I would like to introduce my experts today. On my left, I have Mr. Franz von Weizsaecker, Head of Program Citizens’ Engagement and Innovation Data Use for Africa’s Development, GIZ. Mr. Wesiker is heading the Digital and Economic Portfolio of GIZ Office to the African Union based in Addis Ababa. This includes the data governance in Africa and initiative, a multi-donor action funded by the European Union and five European Member States. On my right, Ms. Beckwith Burr, ICAN board member. Ms. Burr is a partner of Harris, Wiltshire & Granus LLP. Her practice focuses on data protection, data governance, and cybersecurity. Prior to joining the firm, Burr was Nostar’s Deputy General Counsel and Chief Privacy Officer and has been involved in internet governance issues for more than 25 years. She was also the Director of the Office of the International Affairs of ITIA during the creation of ICAN. Also on my left is Ms. Olga Skorokhodova, Government Affairs and Public Policy Emerging Markets, Head of CACASIS, Central Asia, and Russia, Google. Ms. Olga is responsible for government affairs and public policy in a number of countries of Central Asia and the CACASIS. She also leads strategic AI policy engagement projects within the Emerging Markets team covering 100 plus countries at Google. Also on my right, Mr. Cedric Wachholz, Chief Section for Digital Policy and Digital Transformation in UNESCO, which includes multiple artificial intelligence workstreams and the use of frontier technologies for attaining the UN Sustainability Development Goals through advocacy, capacity, and public policy developments, as well as other workstreams. So, with that said, let’s start with Ms. Burr. Ms. Burr, what is exactly ICANN’s role in the internet ecosystem and how can members of Parliament collaborate with this global organization?

Beckwith Burr: Thank you for the question and thank you for asking me. participate. It’s a great honor to be here and to be in Saudi Arabia for my first time. ICANN has a limited but very critical role in the internet ecosystem. Its fundamental mission is to ensure the secure and stable operation of the internet’s unique identifier systems, the building blocks of DNS, including names, numbers, and protocols. If names, numbers, and protocols don’t work, your internet content messages will not get where they need to be. So the security and stability and operational resilience of the DNS is critical. ICANN accomplishes its mission in several ways. First, it coordinates the allocation and assignment of top-level domains, both the so-called generic TLDs like com, net, and org, as well as the two-digit country code TLDs such as .sa, .jp, or .fr. Second, ICANN coordinates the development of policies concerning the registration of second-level domains, so the beckyburr.com, but in this case, only in the generic, not in the country code domain namespace because country code domain namespace policy is established in-country. Third, ICANN facilitates the coordination of the DNS root name server system. Fourth, working with regional address registries such as RIPE, NCC, and LACNIC, ICANN coordinates the allocation and assignment of internet protocol numbers and autonomous system numbers used to route internet traffic. And finally, in coordination with the Internet Engineering Task Force, ICANN provides registries for the authoritative record of many of the codes and numbers contained in a variety of internet protocols, also often referred to as ICANN. to as RFCs. ICANN does not have regulatory authority. Rather, its role involves convening, coordinating, and facilitating the collaborative work of stakeholders, including the technical community, civil society, business, users, and governments. National governments, distinct economies, and international intergovernmental organizations participate in ICANN’s multi-stakeholder policy development processes and provide advice on public policy matters, primarily through the Government Advisory Committee, or the GAC. The GAC has 183 governments as members and 39 intergovernmental organizations as observers. GAC delegations may include lawmakers, and ICANN welcomes this, and we have often seen parliamentarians participating in the GAC delegations. There are many other ways that parliamentarians can participate in ICANN’s multi-stakeholder process. Parliamentarians are always welcome at ICANN meetings, which occur three times per year and rotate through ICANN’s five regions. Meetings are accessible. Everything is translated into the six UN languages plus Portuguese. ICANN also operates a robust capacity building program designed to lower barriers to participation while increasing diversity and effective participation of GAC members, including from underserved regions. Capacity building events have been held online, as well as in Nairobi, Johannesburg, Dakar, Nandi, Kathmandu, Abu Dhabi, Manama, San Juan, Panama City, Cancun, and many other places. Parliamentarians are welcome to participate in programming sponsored by ICANN and its partners, such as our annual Universal Acceptance Day, where we promote acceptance of non-ASCII scripts, so internationalized domain names, and other initiatives such as the Coalition for Digital Africa. While ICANN is headquartered in Los Angeles, it has a global presence with offices in Brussels, Montevideo, Singapore, and Istanbul, and smaller engagement centers in Beijing, Nairobi, and Geneva. The ICANN’s global engagement team welcome outreach from parliamentarians and would be very pleased to assist you in answering questions, connecting you with resources, and helping you participate. In addition to resources and engagement opportunities offered by ICANN and its programming partners, parliamentarians may want to engage directly with local ICANN stakeholders who are very knowledgeable about the ICANN process, who are very anxious to work with their government representatives and their legislators. And these include country code domain name operators, regional associations of country code operators, and regional at-large organizations and regional address registries. I’m happy to answer any questions you have or provide further information on how you can collaborate with ICANN in furtherance of a secure, resilient, and globally interoperable Internet. Thank you.

Rima Al-Yahya: Thank you. That’s amazing. So, your job is really full because participating in meetings and attending ICANN events will expose parliamentarians to the best practices, as well as networking with others, so they will definitely benefit wherever they attend. All right. Thank you so much. All right. So, the second question is directed to Mr. Weizsäcker. Sir, the GIZ… is a strong partner of the African Union and supporting capacity building activities of members of parliaments. How can parliamentarians effectively contribute to a harmonized digital landscape? And it would be great if you could give us some tangible concrete examples.

Franz von Weizsaecker: Thank you so much, Rima. And thanks also for welcoming me in Saudi Arabia. Coming back after 15 years being abroad and coming back to Saudi, I came back to a different, very different country. It’s really a much more modern place. Much appreciated. And I’m very excited to be here. Thank you. So I work for the GIZ office to the African Union. And GIZ is a part of the German government for international development. And so, yes, we do support the parliamentarian track of IGF and parliamentarian capacity development as part of the Data Governance in Africa initiative. And that is the EU project that has been funded by EU and five different European member states. And I do believe that Germany, since you might remember the IGF in Berlin, Germany was actively promoting the participation of parliamentarians in IGFs to be part of the dialogue, because in the end, it is the lawmakers that have to bring the governmental role and have to have to promote a well-informed governmental role into digital policymaking. And our support to the African Union and its 55 member states and the regional economic communities is around harmonizing the digital policies, in particular, the data policies, as well as supporting a number of other initiatives such as the African Digital Compact, and the African Union AI strategy, I believe Olga also was part of that. So the African Union Data Policy Framework is the effort to harmonize how data can be shared by government, by private sector, how it can be transferred across the border. And that is very important in Africa’s ambition to form a digital single market to allow also companies to work across borders and this is to encourage the investments in the startup ecosystem because in many cases these businesses need the opportunity to scale across borders as well in order to really reap the value of the data economy and the AI economy built on that of course. We do face a lot of the debates, and that might be an interesting discussion with Google, of data colonialism and of extractive business models taking data from African citizens and maybe generating profits elsewhere in the world. And we do take that very seriously so it is these national debates on economic policies that are going on of how can the value of the data economy be maximized, the value that is created locally and that the local economy and the tax collection and so on are benefiting from. So that is a very important debate to have and the right answer to that is in many cases to not limit the cross-border data transfer but rather to encourage it because more economic value can be generated by connecting and by sharing data across borders. So that is the policy of the African Union Data Policy Framework and we have now reached a stage where we have received from the 55 countries of the African Union, we have received 22 requests by 22 members. States that want to adopt the African Union Data Policy Framework at national level, as well as the regional economic communities of EAC, East Africa, SADEC for Southern Africa, and ECOWAS for Eastern Africa, who all want to be part of this harmonization effort. And I believe that’s a very important initiative to really reap the benefits of the data economy at national level and at regional level in Africa. And that’s what the German government, with its European partners, is happy to support. Along with that policy support, there is an infrastructure investment facility on data centers and investments in data centers, as well as a promotion facility for data use cases in various sectors. So agricultural data, climate data, financial systems data. And this is all about sharing models that work across the border and between different stakeholders, private sector, public sector, and so on. So this is what we are doing, and I believe it’s very important that parliamentarians be part of this debate in order to really fully support the role of the government, of lawmakers, to pass the necessary harmonization efforts at national level. Thank you.

Rima Al-Yahya: Amazing. Amazing. Can I ask, how far have you gone in harmonizing the digital landscape? I mean, from your experience, 55 African countries of the African Union is a large-scale project. So I know you mentioned 22 countries being interested in the policy framework, but have you seen any tangible harmonization so far?

Franz von Weizsaecker: Of course, the passing of legislation is nothing that happens from one day to another. So for example, there is policy drafting going on in Nagula for the new data protection law, in Zambia, and the Gambia. So those are one of the most advanced countries in those efforts currently of adopting the AU framework, as well as efforts on… region of ECOWAS in Western Africa, the regional framework is being updated to comply with the principles of the African Union framework. And there is from those 22 countries that have requested, it’s a long list, too long to read here, but nine of those countries have done an assessment to see how far advanced are they in the various aspects of data governance. And we have done several capacity development measures in the Gambia, in Nigeria and Zambia, as well as on regional level. So it is advancing very fast, but you’re right, it’s very ambitious. 55 countries, I think we will not get there to implement in all 55, but we follow the first come, first serve approach to provide support where it’s requested.

Rima Al-Yahya: Amazing. I raise my hat to you. All right. So moving on to Mr. Waschholz. Mr. Cedric, UNESCO is actively contributing to digital policymaking, capacities and inclusion, and has worked with members of parliaments on AI regulations and emerging approaches across the world. What regulatory approaches to AI can you recommend, especially to parliaments with less capabilities?

Cedric Wachholz: Thank you, Madam Chair. And the answer to your question is, there is no one-fits-it-all approach. But let me first thank you for giving us the floor and thanking Saudi Arabia for its hospitality, for hosting the IGF, but also for the parliamentary track to invite UNESCO to join. This is a really much appreciated cooperation. So we are talking about a very hot topic, which is rapidly evolving over the last years. There are more than 30 countries which have adopted AI regulation by parliaments. And just if you look at the Stanford AI Index from 2024, they saw that the the number of citations and proceedings across the globe where AI was mentioned in legislative proceedings doubled just in one year from 2022 to 2023. So it is really something which is gaining in importance. And we have worked together with the IGF, Parliamentary Track, but also the IPU on different capacity development activities for parliamentarians. But also we have looked at existing regulation and looked them at different approaches because that was your question. And so there are a number one can distinguish. There’s a paper we developed and we had actually inputs from more than a hundred parliamentarians from legal experts, but also from AI experts on that. And it is online available. And there we distinguish actually nine different approaches. And of course one needs to, I will rapidly map them, but of course it is all a question of context and to see what are really the best regulatory approaches. So one we would distinguish is, and probably all, there is not one approach most countries will adopt, but they will mix different approaches. So there’s that dimension. So the principle-based approach focuses really on the broad ethical principles to guide AI development. And some of you might be aware that UNESCO, UNESCO’s member states, but through a long multi-stakeholder process over three years has developed an ethics recommendation adopted by all member states. And that was a long process, but these ethical principles are for us the foundation and guiding principles. They’re also human rights-based, but this would be a principle-based approach as well. Then, there is of course a standards-based approach, which involves really creating specific technical standards for AI systems to ensure a certain safety and compliance. One can certainly also mention agile and experimentalist approaches, encouraging some flexibility and

Rima Al-Yahya: experimentation in AI regulation, also to adopt and be ready for a number of technological

Cedric Wachholz: rapid technological changes. The AI recommendation of UNESCO, for example, was launched, actually the process in 2017-18, it took three years, was adopted in 2021 before CETCPT. So you need to actually also have some flexibility in adopting. It is absolutely relevant also in CETCPT-H, it hasn’t changed, but we had some foresight in doing this work. But another approach would be the one of adapting existing laws and modifying actually already existing current legal frameworks. Then comes the one which we would call the access to information and transparency mandates approach, which ensures that AI systems really operate transparently and that information is really accessible to all stakeholders, which isn’t an easy exercise, but some of the regulations aim that. The risk-based approach is one, I mean, many of you are familiar with, because the European AI Act is very much based on that approach. Some might have heard about that. And it is about assessing and mitigating the risks associated to AI applications. Now, the rights-based approach is prioritised with really the human rights in the deployment of AI technologies, and the liability approach is the one. assessing or assigning responsibilities and also sanctions to problematic users of AI. Now, as I mentioned, these nine approaches represent different pieces of a puzzle, and I don’t know if I have a little bit more time to say why, when, and how to regulate, or if we should keep that for a later discussion. Yes? Okay. So, of course, there are more or less three reasons I would name to regulate, so the why. One is, of course, to address a public problem, and secondly is to really promote, respect, protect fundamental and also collective rights. And then the third one is really to create an enabling environment, but also shape a digital future which is safe and which corresponds to the desired, you know, also digital future. So, when you regulate, you need to, and this is a process probably some of you have gone through in different other contexts, but of course you need to have one of these justifications or several ones to go forward. But then also ask if there are any irregularities. Also, is it feasible from a legal and political and administrative point of view? And if you answer all these questions, you can say yes, then you probably should regulate. And then there’s, of course, the how-to, keeping human rights at the forefront and as a basis, and the core of it all is an important foundation. But then also considering agile methodologies as sandboxes and testbeds. There are some examples for that too. And then for us, it has very clearly shown that multi-stakeholder approaches are key in this domain. So, to consider multiple perspective, so that it is representative, but also inclusive and also realistic. So we have partnered, well, I will not go too much more now into details, I think, but just to say that we were very happy to have a few also capacity development workshops with the IPU and the IGF parliamentary track, just to recognize that.

Rima Al-Yahya: Great, remarkable. You were just saying that one hat does not fit all. So do you customize your regulatory approaches to AI, depending on the parliaments and those with less capabilities? Do you engage non-profit organizations or companies with corporate responsibility to help you out with the capacity building training for parliamentarians, I mean, especially with those with the countries with less capabilities?

Cedric Wachholz: Yes, we do. And I like this multi-stakeholder approach of this panel, too. I think it is very helpful. Now, there are different approaches. And for example, I mentioned the AI ethics recommendation and we have different tools developed, for example, to do first and country assessment, to have some facts as a background. And this has been rolled out in more than 60 countries to really assess the AI landscape, which is a helpful tool to then have some evidence to guide the way forward. We have a comparable tool also for companies where some companies have bought into adapting the AI ethics recommendation. So assessing first the country situation, the needs, the landscape, and then adapting different tools makes the most sense to me. Thank you so much.

Rima Al-Yahya: All right. So now, last but not least, Ms. Skorokhodova, how can members of parliament engage with Google?

Olga Skorokhodova: Thank you so much for the opportunity to be part of this panel. This has been an enormous. enriching and insightful conversation. So thank you so much, co-panelists. I actually quite like being the last one at the panel because you can enrich yourself with all that knowledge that has been shared before. And then it’s just really inspiring to hear all your perspectives. I wanted to start by expressing my gratitude on behalf of Google to the organizers of IGF and to Saudi Arabia as a host country for the hospitality and for having us at this parliamentary track. This is very special, and it’s a big privilege for our company. At Google, we believe that collaboration is the key to address today’s complex challenges from climate change to health care delivery. And we also believe, of course, it’s no secret that digital technologies and AI can play a crucial role in addressing these challenges. And in doing so, we are also deeply committed to working with the governments and parliamentarians around the world in two, I would say, roughly two very important areas. One is really shape the policies that will define digital age. And more and more, we are talking about AI policies. The African Union AI framework has been just mentioned as one of the examples. And I love citing this example in some other regions when I visit because I think that is remarkable what the African Union achieved. And this is something where we as a company are involved in really discussing the frameworks, national strategies, and regulation that shapes digital realm. And secondly, in terms of our work with parliamentarians and public. officials, we are committed to deliver impactful upskilling and capacity building programs for public officials. And we have to be honest, I would say, this AI ascent that happened very rapidly, it was a surprise, and it is still a surprise to many public officials. And they must not have all the capacity that you need to have to address these issues, to regulate them in a smart way. That’s why capacity building, specifically targeting public officials and parliamentarians, policymakers, regulators, is a very, very important aspect. And if we talk about AI, we now have already some figures of what is the price in hand. And one of those figures is McKinsey estimates. It’s $26 trillion. That’s an upside of full AI adoption in terms of potential economic impact. That’s higher, actually, this figure is higher than current GDP of the United States. And so to really leverage this potential and convert this potential into economic reality, especially in the emerging markets, we really believe that strategic approach is important. And to help governments of emerging markets, specifically, to charter the path forward, this spring we came up with a roadmap or policy recommendation set that we called AI Sprinters. We use this term to nickname countries that lead or leapfrog in terms of AI, in terms of economic opportunity by using AI and digital tools. And so our recommendation is that governments and specifically parliamentarians, as they think about how do we use AI for economic development. development, they should consider focusing on four main pillars. One is really infrastructure, and it’s about securing access to reliable internet and to cloud computing, because there is no AI without cloud computing. Second, it’s about innovation. And we talked briefly mentioned data colonialism, and what we think is important while we should be thinking and talking about how do we extrapolate the value of data to the local economies. What is also crucially important, and we really see it with our products, is that there is enough data locally available to power locally developed tools and AI applications, or adopting the global tools that already exist, but to the local reality. I will give you just one simple example. We have a special AI model that can actually help you predict flooding nine days in advance before it occurs. And the flooding is a big deal, and a big economic factor in Africa, in Central Asia, et cetera. But we were not able to launch this model and scale it in some countries of my region that I cover, Central Asia, just because there was not enough data publicly available for it, because the government sits on that data. They do have historical data of how rivers behave, but it’s not disclosed. So we can’t offer our model that can help you mitigate potential risks, potential human impact, economic impact, but you can’t do it without data. So really making sure the data is available for development locally is very important. And then policies and skills. And I want to touch upon what we are doing in terms of public official subscaling. Really three initiatives that I want to mention, because we do recognize and realize the responsibility as a global player to prepare public officials and parliamentarians to the AI-driven age. So what we are doing is that through google.org, it’s our company philanthropy branch, we gave a grant of more than 5 million US dollars to a political government AI campus. That’s a special program created to bring AI education specifically to public officials. Beyond global programming, the government AI campus has engaged with leaders across the United Arab Emirates. Saudi Arabia, our host countries, South Africa and other countries to bring tailor-made education to the civil servants at scale. We also recognize that to ensure that these upscaling programs are truly inclusive, you need to have proper language coverage. So all the curriculum of AI campus is translated into 10 languages including Arabic, Spanish and others to make sure that actually countries that need this capacity building support have access in terms of language offering to our programs. We also recognize that policymakers and parliamentarians in emerging markets may need more tailored approach and we run as a company our internal bespoke AI academies, we call them, which is basically a crash course on AI applications but also on AI regulation that we offer internally to the policymakers across the world. In this year only we ran seven AI academies in practically in all of the emerging markets, Latin America, Brazil, the Middle East, North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, Central Asia and Turkey. Again, recognizing the need for more robust support specifically in Sub-Saharan Africa, we launched an AI Sprinters online course which is developed based on our recommendation and roadmap that we offer for emerging markets on how to drive AI adoption. This online course we launched at the UN General Assembly just this September and we already trained more than 300 African officials at the UN General Assembly but also with the support of UN Economic Commission for Africa and the World Trade Organization. So I think my… time is up already, but I just wanted to conclude by saying that we at Google also look at capacity building for public officials and also at really policy making once it comes to AI as a collective multi-stakeholder project, I would say. And here, definitely companies like ours have also a role to play and we are happy to be part of that ecosystem. Thank you so much.

Rima Al-Yahya: Amazing. That’s amazing. What you’re saying just reminded me of something that’s really similar that’s being implemented in Saudi Arabia. It’s not with parliamentarians, but it’s with our graduates. We have exceptional graduates who graduate and then when they apply for their jobs, they don’t get accepted because they don’t have the proper capacity building skills that they needed. So we felt that we needed to bridge the gap between academia and the industry sector. And so a collaboration of different academies, such as the Saudi Digital Academy by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, and we have like the Wake Academy and the Academy of Cybersecurity by the National Commission for Cybersecurity, as well as Sadae Academy, MISC Academy, and it’s a lot what Google is also doing. And they started boot camps for graduates between the age of 22 to 28, and this enabled them to be equipped with the proper skills required by employers when they lack hands-on experience. So certified degrees by Google, by Red Hat, by IBM are procured easily for these graduates and these graduates will become parliamentarians with time, some of them will. And so that’s really amazing what you’re doing. All right, so let’s open the floor to a discussion. We’ll start by four questions. And if we have time, we can have another round of four questions. So we’ll We can start. Ms. Maryam? Maryam?

Audience: Hi, thank you very much for this session. My name is Maha Abdel Nasser. I’m Egyptian parliamentarian. Actually, I know a lot of programs you are all running, but with the government. I’ve never heard about anything with the parliament or for parliamentarians. So I would love to have all what you’ve said. I don’t know if we can ask the IGF secretariat to write all these initiatives that can be used for parliamentarians and gather them in a document and send it to us, so we can actually benefit from it. I am from the ICT industry, so maybe I don’t need that very much. We all need to learn, of course. But the other parliamentarians, they know nothing about what we are talking about. And at the end of the day, they will be the people who will vote for any legislation regarding AI or any act regarding anything related to technology. So we need badly to have capacity building from them. I’m very happy that you raised the data colonization subject, but I don’t think that we still have an answer. We need to work together to, I don’t know, have some ethics regarding the data flow, regarding the data colonization, regarding not to benefit from our data because we have more people than the West. Again, the global South and the global North. And we need more for global South. Please, we actually need this.

Rima Al-Yahya: Thank you. Any other questions? Yes.

Audience: Thank you very much. My name is Catherine Muma, I’m a senator from Kenya. And just to overemphasize that government is not just the executive. And parliaments play a critical role in shaping policy. And my colleague is right that over 95% of us do not understand this is a technical sector and we need deliberate greater investment in getting the competencies of parliamentarians across board, not just a few, to be able to contribute from an informed position when we are doing regulation on digital technology issues. And this is going to be cross board. It will be in the financial sector, it will be in the health sector, it will be in the water sector. So we can’t just say the ICT committees of parliament are the only ones which need competence. If we are going to do telemedicine and I’m sitting on the committee on health, exactly how should I shape that law in order to make it facilitative, not obstructive? So I think those working on this need to deliberately invest in this because there is a potential of parliament actually harming rather than assisting in the entire process. Coming to AI, don’t you think it’s too, it might be too early to say that we can define a particular law in a particular way? Might we want to focus on the possible harms that would come with AI and focus on strengthening legislation against those harms, whether it is a criminal activity, how do we bring, how do we improve child protection law, for instance, to deal with pedophile behavior, criminal behavior? Might we? be doing better strengthening the laws on offenses and criminals rather than coming up with a law we call an AI legislation that is not seriously informed that may very well stifle innovation. I don’t know what you think about that.

Rima Al-Yahya: Thank you, thank you. Very good question. Yes. Sorry.

Audience: Yes, good afternoon and thank you very much for the wonderful presentations across. First, I just want to thank. Can I have your name? My name is Honorable Al-Hajji, more from the Gambia and the Pan-African Parliament, which is an AU Parliament. I just want to thank you generally for this wonderful, wonderful information that we are hearing from across the presenters. Particularly ICANN, I must be grateful because they provided some training to about almost 30 members of Parliament in Rwanda this past July. And it was great, great initiative by the ICANN. We are really very thankful. Now, I agree with my colleagues because oftentimes when you deal with government, you are only dealing with the executive. The Parliament is actually exempted. And the book ends with us. At the end of the day, with laws, with regulations, Parliament has a big role to play in it. And that’s the reason why sometimes you bring a bill in Parliament and it takes ages. Why? Because Parliament do not understand. They need to make a lot of consultations and in and out of the country. And because of the fact that there is a gap, a knowledge gap, and that would make that bill stay there for a very long time. So this capacity building, particularly in the era of technology, I think is important if we can partner with various institutions to help bridge that gap. Because the government, the executive, they will not do that because of, again, we have our own budget. But again, at the end of the day, it’s the same country. So anything that we can do, we can collaborate to ensure that we bridge this gap. which is the knowledge gap in most members of parliament. We have very, very, very few members of parliament that actually understand technology. I am an exception because I’m a software developer and I’ve been in the field for 25 years now, but I’m one in maybe hundreds or 200 members of parliament, like my colleague from Egypt actually has said. So if we are able to do needs-based assessment, you will see some very interesting data on technology and anything we can do together to help close that gap in terms of capacity development, I think it’s gonna help a lot. In the long run, to ensure that at least we are all on the same terrain in this digital ecosystem. Thank you.

Rima Al-Yahya: Thank you, thank you.

Audience: Thank you, Jamal Fakhr Al-Bahrain. Today, this morning, we started with a session with the representative of the private sector. And those were focusing a lot on saying that we don’t need to have any regulations at this stage. This afternoon, we are listening to UNESCO representative who have kindly been so kind to share with us what UNESCO have been doing over the years and putting regulations. So the question is really, is there a timeframe for us to start to think of putting regulations to regulate the AI? Are we on hurry if we say we are going to regulate? Are we supposed to really go back to say, okay, we will, since we have got the data protection law, since we have got the privacy law, since we have got the consumer protection law, then we don’t need to have an AI law. But again, as the other says, AI is something new. Many of all the members of parliament are not aware of. Unfortunately, none of them attend all the sessions organized by IPU from time to time to learn out of that. So really, I’m in a bit of a dilemma today. this morning. I have a different idea when I’m closing my day today. I have a different idea. It would be nice to hear from the four speakers there. How do they see? Are we ready to put a regulation, a law, exactly as something like what the EU did a few months back? Or we are saying, no, leave everything as it is today and focus on the various laws you have? Data protection, privacy law, and consumer law.

Rima Al-Yahya: Thank you. Thank you. All right. So let’s start with the first question by Dr. Meha. That has to do with what capacity building initiatives are directed to parliamentarians specifically and also discussing the data colonization issue and concerning the focus on maybe more focusing on the global south. So we can start with Ms. Olga.

Olga Skorokhodova: Thank you so much for your question. In terms of specific trainings that are available or not available to parliamentarians, all the initiatives that I listed, what we are doing at Google, they are open to parliamentarians. But definitely for me, the key takeaway, my colleagues and my company would be to really start thinking more strategically around how we engage parliamentarians. And here, definitely our colleague from Kenya also made an intervention on this topic. And we are happy to share with the IJF Secretariat all the information about the programs that we are running. And definitely, I’m not sure about Egypt, but we definitely had some parliamentarians from the African continent that took part in some of our initiatives and programs that we ran this year. Also, in terms of data colonialism and how we should approach this issue, I think there are two aspects that I wanted to highlight. First of all, when we think about specific… there could be some specific ways we can approach the taxation issue. And here, my colleague also brought this up. And I think that from the Google perspective, and I believe that’s also shared by the industry players, for us, it’s important that the approach towards the taxation would be synchronised or would be, you know, the one that would be universally applicable. And we definitely work very closely with OECD on digital taxation matters. What is difficult for us is to have 198 approaches to really taxing, you know, companies like Google. So we are definitely supporting the international, you know, internationally synchronised approach. And in terms of making, in terms of really making sure that Global South benefits from AI solutions, I think that at Google, we specifically focus a lot on making sure that our AI solutions, they are for social good. And I’m happy to see that many, many solutions that we actually develop, they are coming from the countries in the Global South. We have, for example, an AI office, an AI centre of excellence in Ghana. And from that centre, many solutions that we then apply, you know, in many different countries around the world, they are coming from that centre where we employ people locally, where we also leverage data locally. One of the solutions that I mentioned, our flood prediction solution is actually coming from the Global South in terms of where we developed it. And we have a bunch of solutions like that. So I think that’s also an important question of how big companies, big players approach that aspect, AI for social good. And I think that we may have so many use cases. that could drive real-life impact in the global South. And that’s something that we should definitely prioritize.

Rima Al-Yahya: Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Rezeker.

Franz von Weizsaecker: Okay, I will try. I mean, if four people answer four questions, we will have 16 answers. So I’ll try to summarize a little bit, if you allow me. Combining the questions related to data colonization, as well as AI laws. I mean, one of the key questions is, so who reaps the benefits? And usually, data is a resource that is very different from oil. In the sense that when you cannot burn it and it’s gone, but rather it develops its value by sharing and by transferring and by adopting, by updating and so on, by connecting the data. And that’s why it is a different type of good. Also to see in the context of the post-colonial debates is that a resource that shall be kept in one place. For a physical resource, that makes a lot of sense. And for this virtual resource, it makes less sense because it creates less value. And for that purpose, I have something in the pipeline. I hope to soon be able to launch a call for papers for, in this case, African researchers, economic researchers, to guide policymakers as to which policies are best to maximize the value creation happening in Africa, in the country. The value creation, as well as the related tax collection. Because I believe in many cases, the answer is not to shut down the borders for data transfers, but rather to enable local innovation, to enable ecosystems that harvest and generate value that can create benefit locally. So that is part of the answer. And what I’ve seen in many of the national debates in Africa, and the Kenyan debate is very advanced in that regard, is shall we put a focus on risks, like the… Europeans do, or is the focus more on economic growth and innovation? And I do see that the bias is in Africa much more towards innovation, whereas in Europe the focus of the legislation, the AI Act, is much a risk management system. And that is part of the answer to the colleague from Bahrain, is do we need the law at this stage? The European approach on AI is putting things into different risk categories. And when you’re dealing with biometric data of the entire population and very private information and so on, that’s a high-risk environment. So yes, you might want to regulate that, but you don’t want to regulate all the innovators and start-ups to death, essentially. So having a tiered approach makes a lot of sense in that way, and that’s maybe part of the answer. Maybe the Europeans are focusing a lot of attention on the risks, and I see that is not so much the priority. In another context, I don’t say it’s not important to look at the risk, but having also an agile way of regulating, because as you mentioned, there’s a lot of new developments happening all the time, and the legal, the lawmaking cycle is in many cases much slower than the innovation cycle of start-ups and entrepreneurs. So that’s why a flexible approach focusing on economic benefits that are happening locally with tiered risk management is maybe my recommendation.

Rima Al-Yahya: Thank you, thank you. Then let’s go on to Dr. Catherine’s question. She was asking about harmonizing capacity-building throughout the countries through different sectors, whether it’s health or economy. We as parliamentarians usually have these specialized committees, and we would need to need this expertise. So do you think you can answer that, Ms. Burr?

Beckwith Burr: Yes, and thank you for the question. I feel keenly the pain that you describe in the sort of tension between executive branch decision-making and legislation. I have been in an executive branch agency and worked in the legislature in the United States. And let me just say, at ICANN, we don’t advocate sort of particular policies or laws or legislation, but we care very much that when legislatures act, they understand what they’re doing and how the internet works and whether what they’re proposing to do will break the internet or how it will impact it. So ICANN is very actively engaged whenever it hears about legislation. If it can be helpful in providing information and providing training, you know, sort of non-partisan, not advocating one way or another, but educating, ICANN is there to do it. If your government agencies won’t include you in a delegation to ICANN, ICANN has a fellows program. You can apply. They will provide funding to bring you to an ICANN meeting, financial support, train you, introduce you to people so then you know who to reach out to. So I’m not sure exactly who put on the capacity building in Rwanda, but I know they care very much about doing that. You have some wonderful women in both of your countries who are very much involved in ICANN, and I’ll give you their names afterwards, but I bet you know them. And so I do think it’s absolutely important. Some parliamentarians have technical backgrounds and understand. Other parliamentarians see problems and concerns and they want to respond to it, but they need the tools and information. and to do that in a way that does no harm and that actually solves the problem. And that, if I can just respond to your question because this is, this feels like a deja vu moment. You may all recall in the mid 90s when privacy on the internet became a big thing and this debate about, do we regulate now? Do we wait until we understand it? It was a very big deal. And some countries took the, don’t regulate, let’s see what it does, let’s focus on the invasion. Some countries took the focus, took the, let’s focus on harms. I think there’s a balance that you need to apply, which is, if you can identify the risk there, can you identify principles that will guide your thinking and your regulation and your governance and the way that you enforce laws that are on the books? So I think it’s critical for every legislature to be thinking about the principles that affect AI. I’m not sure that it’s, there’s a very big risk that you develop technology specific legislation that locks you into a particular way of thinking about technology, which changes so rapidly so that you pass a law and it is outdated the moment it’s signed into law. There’s a lot of risk about that, but having sound grounding and principles and the work that UNESCO is doing on principles for AI, for example, is very important work. So I do think that in some of the most risky areas, doing something like a serious principles-based review makes sense. sense. But in other areas, you might want to let a thousand flowers bloom. So, but this tension, the tension of sort of when do you act, when is it too early to act, and when is it too late to act? If we study what’s happened in data protection, I think it gives us a very important lesson in how complicated it is to get that exactly right.

Rima Al-Yahya: Thank you. Thank you. So, I guess when you speak about ICANN having that facilitating role as facilitators, that would probably answer Dr. Hadji’s question about how capacity building should be a collaborative effort between different entities.

Beckwith Burr: Yeah, and I am happy to provide information on our fellows program because, you know, get one parliamentarian to come and that provides a way for us to get to know you, you to get to know us, and we can provide the resources. Thank you.

Rima Al-Yahya: Mr. Cedric, could you also elaborate on Dr. Jamal’s question about regulations of AI, as well as Dr. Catherine when she spoke about how can we deal with harms, how can we strengthen the laws?

Cedric Wachholz: Thank you so much. So, I’m astonished to hear that the private sector in the morning said that there’s no need for regulation, because I think what we hear also from the private sector is really a strong need for clarity. It is not always lost necessarily, but there are many, many examples, and just an easy one from the UNESCO perspective. We work on education. We have an example of a European country which was working on educational management and information systems in the education system and invited companies to provide solutions. We used AI, which then became challenging. in terms of privacy, in terms of their modalities of return on investment, and so on. And then they wanted to regulate, and then the private sector said, well, you can’t change the rules of the game during the game. So sometimes the challenges arise, and one fully understands really only why things are evolving, and this is not about lawmaking here, but just to point out some of the concrete challenges. So I think what the private sector would like, if I may say that, but which you have sometimes stated also from the highest level, is just clarity for them to be able to move forward. Now, in terms of the judiciary also, and it responds also partly to the question or to the points from Kenya, but not only. UNESCO has developed a network of 36,000 judicial operators, meaning judges, prosecutors, lawyers, and so on, who we are training. And 8,500 we trained on AI and digital transformation, and I think the last workshop was actually about two weeks ago in Kenya with 35 judges, and so there are existing laws which can be used to also limit some of the risks and the harms, and we have many toolkits. We have MOOCs, so online learning platforms, but also many webinars and so on for judges, and face-to-face training and regional trainings to see, for example, how with human rights law you can actually already make decisions, and there are a lot of case studies which have been published in the global toolkit. So this is on the judiciary, because you asked that question too. But in terms of capacity development, also for Kenya, again, we are having a big project with other UN agencies too, which will, where we will… We have also a MOOC for parliamentarians in the mid of 2025. This is the aim. So this is an online training. It will just be 12 hours. So it’s not too comprehensive, but six modules which give a good base, I think, on also the legislation.

Rima Al-Yahya: Thank you very much for your answer. I think, Miss Olga, you want to just add something?

Olga Skorokhodova: Yeah, I just wanted to also kind of provide the private industry perspective on the regulation, whether this is the time or not the time to regulate. And again, I’m speaking on behalf of a public private sector, right? But it’s really the Google’s position. And it’s very short. AI is too important not to regulate, but it’s also too important not to regulate well. That’s our motto, the motto of Google. And then also the approach towards regulation that we suggest to consider is really responsible, bold and together. That’s basically responsible means putting responsibility really at the front and center and then bold meaning really thinking strategically about where we can use AI for economic development as well. And then together meaning the dialogue. And in terms of whether this is the right time to go after hard regulation or not, I think this is really eventually down to the countries to decide. We were very actively involved in the discussion around European AI Act that has been just adopted and we generally support the risk based approach. However, we also see that many countries and I just had today in the morning a meeting with the SADAR, which is a Saudi data and AI authority. They definitely don’t want to go after hard regulation. But rather, that’s very interesting, by the way, approach. They are very, very involved in discussions around standards and several. representatives of the authority of actually chairing the groups that are developing standards for AI certification that are really just coming up, you know, being released now. That’s also an approach. So we as a company definitely want to share our expertise. We see different models across the world, but really striking this balance between responsible, bold, you know, and together. This is difficult, but it’s something that we really need to, I guess, you know, do together. Yeah. Thank you.

Rima Al-Yahya: Thank you. All right. I think we have time to wrap up with just two more questions and then we can have our final. Yeah. Your name, please.

Audience: I would like to thank the Kingdom for the leadership and the people for the program. Sorry, just a minute. We’ll just give you a minute to… I swear to God, your problem is that you left it in English. No, we don’t… All languages are available. With all respect. Anyhow, of course, I’m putting the subject in points, and it’s not a problem. As some of the other parliaments have said, the parliaments don’t have that much backing. So, I mean, if there is cooperation between the parliaments and the EU, for example, and UNESCO, whatever, all the interested parties. That’s the first thing. Second, We are not only talking about the security in terms of preserving private information, but we as the Middle East region, and especially in the Gulf, we have a heritage, and we are preserving this heritage, and not only preserving data, preserving data is a part of it. But we belong to other things that may not mean that much to some organizations, but we even belong to the owners of other religions, like the Jews are preserved, and in Christianity there are people who are preserved, and we also have something that we belong to and preserve. This is one of the points that should be taken into account in studies and projects, especially in the private sector. The private sector, as they said in the last session, META. META was a scandal, there were many things, no one talked about it, it was a scandal in the past. Telegram has problems in France, and it was put in prison by an order from the French authorities. These points should be put, not only on the preservation of privacy, but I suggest that there should be cooperation between the parliaments of the Gulf countries, by the way, all the parliaments of the Gulf countries, without exception, have put a lot of effort in preserving AR and security, but not only for this, we do not refuse to enter technology. and the people’s culture, so that it doesn’t become an economy. It’s okay. But there, the private sector always has other goals. I don’t want to get into their goals. So the private sector should be aware of these points, and the proposed situation should be between the EU and the UNESCO, or the United Nations, with the Arab parliaments, especially the Gulf parliaments, because they, with respect to the other parliaments, are taking very fast and strong steps in this area. Thank you.

Rima Al-Yahya: Thank you, Dr. Abadi. Please, Dr. Saleh, and then we’ll just answer the questions and wrap up.

Audience: Inshallah. Thank you very much. Since we are in Saudi Arabia again, welcome again to Saudi Arabia, since we are almost finishing. I just want to let you know, since we are in Saudi again, we have the agency that’s called SADAIA, which is Saudi Data and AI, or Artificial Intelligence Authority, and we have many laws already in place. One is data classification policy and regulations regarding AI, personal data protection law, and the implementation regulation. It was already last year approved in our parliament, all of these. Rules of procedures on commitments for reviewing violations of the provisions of personal data protection laws and implementing regulations. Also, we have rules for appointing personal data protection officer, data sharing policy and regulations, and so on and on. So my point, we have almost all the infrastructure, and maybe you know in SADAIA, they have what’s so-called readiness report, and they are working with UNESCO or with UN. So we already have some drafts with AI, but in the same time, we have a lot of discussions regarding to approve or not to approve. You know, there are two schools in the whole world, and we are trying to work together. to be in the middle for now to see what will happen but we have almost all these regulations and policies we have ethical you know policies and instructions and so on so just want to show you know to show you what what we have in Saudi Arabia and also again the problem not only the data as you know we mentioned this before it’s the processing of data which is the brain which is the algorithms so in Google or Meta or Twitter or X or whatever this is the most important that maybe next we will see what these joint companies or big companies will do to read to be more transparent with the parliaments of different you know countries and also with the governments and with the people first of all thank you very much thank you thank you very much

Rima Al-Yahya: so if I think I will direct the the question for Dr. Baddy to Mr. Cedric because he spoke about how parliaments need more capacity building skills and he wants more collaborations with the the European Union or the United Nations or UNESCO and between parliaments themselves and he specified having more collaborations between the GCC parliaments as because their their objectives are usually very similar and their needs are so could you answer that Mr. Cedric?

Cedric Wachholz: We are of course delighted to work with Qatar and and I think we do have a comparative advantage as a neutral broker we have no vested interest that we are civil servants and try to bring a multi-stakeholder approach to the table but in the end we we have no vested interest in that for Qatar we had already four trainings of judges of 60-70 people of judges so we’re very popular it’s a different domain but just to say we are involved in in some capacity development and we’ll be happy to extend to broader parliamentarian group and work, and we really are delighted about this cooperation and to strengthen that further, including with Qatar.

Rima Al-Yahya: Yes. We’ll do that. All right. So, and the last question from Dr. Saleh is the problem of the processing of data and whether these companies can do more to be more transparent. Ms. Olga?

Olga Skorokhodova: Thank you so much for this question and for really describing that well, the Saudi Arabia approach so far towards regulation. In terms of transparency and algorithmic transparency, right, I think that’s the question is around it. I think there are two aspects that are important. Algorithms at the end of the day is also commercial information, right? And this is a very competitive space, right? Google and other companies, we are competing with each other. And so, yes, of course, there is this aspect that needs to be taken into account that full disclosure of algorithm is a commercial secrecy. That’s one question. That’s one aspect. On the other side, we do see that there is more requirements. And I think we are moving towards really disclosing more information about how we are working and what goes into the algorithm. But also, and I think this is really underappreciated, how much users who use our products can actually be part of it. Can you raise your hand if you checked your, if you use YouTube, if you checked your YouTube settings recently, last quarter? Oh, we have at least one person. But actually, actually, inside the products such as YouTube, you have a lot of, as a user, a lot of tools. how you can minimize algorithm, let’s say, interference in your user experience. And in fact, if you don’t want to see any algorithm recommendations on YouTube, you can now just turn it off. And I think this is something that sometimes is not maybe on the spotlight. But actually, users are also part of that story. But definitely, as an industry, we hear and we see there is more push towards the transparency. And I think that we are making good progress towards disclosing more as much as we can while staying still competitive in this very much competitive space.

Rima Al-Yahya: Thank you. So I hope our experts gave the proper answers that everybody was looking for. We have a couple of minutes. And I would, if it is possible for each panelist, to give any final messages in two minutes or less. We’ll start with Cedric.

Cedric Wachholz: There are many ways forward. And I would just like to warmly invite you to join us in Paris on 4th and 5th June, where we have a capacity development event on AI and digital transformation in the public sector, including parliamentarians. And also, the end of June, last week of June in Thailand, our global forum on the ethics of AI for those who want to continue building their capacities. And I just wanted to thank all of you on behalf of UNESCO for this great panel, but also for all the interest. And we are very happy to work with all of you closely.

Rima Al-Yahya: Thank you. Becky?

Beckwith Burr: Yeah, there are enormous amounts of resources out there. It can be very difficult to find them. But I think if you identify trusted sources, UNESCO has done some, as I said, some wonderful work in this area. You know, AI is the hot topic, the flavor of the month, but it’s very closely connected to all of the other kinds of regulatory concerns that we have. So I think looking at it simply in a vacuum could lead us into trouble, and it’s important to look at it in context, understand what laws you have on the books right now. So Saudi Arabia does have a new data protection law that has benefited from years of development of data protection law and reflects best practices up to the moment. It’s very new. And so you can learn also from the work of other parliaments what’s worked, what hasn’t worked. And I think I just want to say, to the extent that I’m here representing ICANN, with respect to the DNS and internet technology work, he’ll appear to help, but also there are lots of resources out there. And I know how important it is to get those resources in a digestible way so that you are not wading through oceans. So I think it behooves all of us to provide some information on where to look and be responsive when you need it.

Rima Al-Yahya: Thank you. Thank you, Franz.

Franz von Weizsaecker: So the internet is global and legislation is national. That creates an inherent tension in all of our efforts and it creates the need to put efforts into harmonization. It will never be a 100% harmonized world, for sure, legislatively, but a certain degree of harmonization, a rough consensus, a dialogue between different stakeholder groups, informed policymaking, coordinated policymaking. has a huge benefit to economic development, to the development of the Internet, to the Internet not falling apart, as our colleagues from ICANN know very well. And so that is why we very much support the international coordination efforts at the level of the African Union and its regional economic communities and member states. And we do believe that only when there is a coordinated effort, also the negotiating power of individual countries, vice versa, global companies, global platforms is improving. If one small company makes a difficult regulation, the big tech titans might just switch off the service in that country and end of story, and nobody is benefiting from it. But if there is a coordinated approach, roughly aligned regulatory frameworks for platforms, for data, for AI, that is hugely beneficial to the overall economic benefit as well as to the negotiating power that individual countries have, vice versa, the tech industry.

Rima Al-Yahya: Thank you, thank you. Olga, last but not least.

Olga Skorokhodova: Thank you so much. I think I would vote for, you know, team sports. Innovation has always been a team sport and AI is a team sport too. So getting AI right will take a team effort. And I think we are on the right track, well, at least within this, you know, panel. And definitely just to kind of piggyback on the comment of my honourable co-panellist, for us, the more harmonised approaches are out there, the easier it is to deploy our solutions. And this is something that we really want you parliamentarians to ask us, you know, to support with. Thank you.

Rima Al-Yahya: Thank you. Thank you very much. So in conclusion, what we have dealt from this session is that building parliamentary capacity. to effectively shape the digital realm involves equipping lawmakers and parliamentary institutions, as well as the private sector with the proper knowledge, the tools and frameworks necessary to govern and oversee the rapidly evolving digital space. This will ultimately ensure that digital policies promote inclusivity, innovation, privacy, security and accountability, and by this the desired outcomes will surely be a more enhanced digital sovereignty and informed decision-making by lawmakers, as well as inclusive growth that benefits all sectors of society, while protecting everyone against misuse and harm. That said, I would like to thank all my panellists on their extremely informative contributions, so please join me in giving a round of applause to our speakers. Thank you. Thank you for attending.

Agreement Points

Importance of capacity building for parliamentarians

Beckwith Burr

Cedric Wachholz

Olga Skorokhodova

ICANN offers training programs and resources for parliamentarians

UNESCO provides capacity building workshops and online courses for parliamentarians

Google runs AI academies and online courses for policymakers in emerging markets

All speakers emphasized the need for and importance of capacity building initiatives for parliamentarians to enhance their understanding of digital policies and AI.

Need for balanced AI regulation

Beckwith Burr

Olga Skorokhodova

Franz von Weizsäcker

Principle-based review is important for high-risk AI areas

AI is too important not to regulate, but regulation must be done well

Risk-based and tiered regulatory approaches can balance innovation and risk management

Speakers agreed on the need for AI regulation, but emphasized the importance of a balanced approach that considers both innovation and risk management.

Similar Viewpoints

Both speakers emphasized the importance of data availability and sharing for economic development and the effective deployment of AI solutions.

Franz von Weizsäcker

Olga Skorokhodova

Data sharing across borders is important for economic development in Africa

Local data availability is crucial for developing AI applications

Unexpected Consensus

Multi-stakeholder collaboration in digital policymaking

Olga Skorokhodova

Audience

Getting AI right requires a team effort across stakeholders

Collaboration between parliaments, international organizations, and industry is needed

Despite representing different perspectives (industry and civil society), both speakers emphasized the importance of collaboration between various stakeholders in shaping digital policies.

Overall Assessment

Summary

The main areas of agreement included the importance of capacity building for parliamentarians, the need for balanced AI regulation, and the significance of data availability and sharing for economic development.

Consensus level

There was a moderate to high level of consensus among the speakers on key issues. This consensus suggests a shared understanding of the challenges and potential solutions in digital policymaking, which could facilitate more effective collaboration and policy development in this area.

Different Viewpoints

Approach to AI regulation

Olga Skorokhodova

Franz von Weizsäcker

Cedric Wachholz

AI is too important not to regulate, but regulation must be done well

Risk-based and tiered regulatory approaches can balance innovation and risk management

Existing laws can be used to limit AI risks and harms

Speakers had different perspectives on how to approach AI regulation. Skorokhodova emphasized the need for balanced regulation, von Weizsaecker advocated for a risk-based tiered approach, while Wachholz suggested using existing laws to address AI risks.

Unexpected Differences

Overall Assessment

summary

The main areas of disagreement centered around approaches to AI regulation and the balance between innovation and risk management in the digital realm.

difference_level

The level of disagreement among the speakers was relatively low. Most speakers agreed on the importance of capacity building for parliamentarians and the need for some form of AI regulation. The differences were mainly in the specific approaches and emphases, rather than fundamental disagreements. This suggests a general consensus on the importance of addressing digital policy issues, with room for collaborative efforts in developing effective strategies.

Partial Agreements

Both speakers agreed on the importance of data availability and sharing for economic development and AI applications. However, they differed in their focus, with Skorokhodova emphasizing local data availability and von Weizsäcker stressing cross-border data sharing in the African context.

Olga Skorokhodova

Franz von Weizsäcker

Local data availability is crucial for developing AI applications

Data sharing across borders is important for economic development in Africa

Similar Viewpoints

Both speakers emphasized the importance of data availability and sharing for economic development and the effective deployment of AI solutions.

Franz von Weizsäcker

Olga Skorokhodova

Data sharing across borders is important for economic development in Africa

Local data availability is crucial for developing AI applications

Key Takeaways

There is a significant need for capacity building and technical knowledge among parliamentarians to effectively shape digital policies.

A balanced approach to AI regulation is needed, considering both innovation and risk management.

Data governance and cross-border data sharing are crucial for economic development, especially in emerging markets.

Multi-stakeholder collaboration between governments, industry, civil society, and international organizations is essential for effective digital policymaking.

Existing laws and principles-based approaches can be used to address some AI risks and harms while more comprehensive regulations are developed.

Resolutions and Action Items

ICANN, UNESCO, and Google offered to share information about their training programs and resources for parliamentarians with the IGF Secretariat.

UNESCO invited participants to join capacity development events on AI and digital transformation in June in Paris and Thailand.

Unresolved Issues

How to balance the need for algorithmic transparency with protection of commercial secrets in AI systems

Specific approaches for preserving cultural heritage in data governance frameworks

The appropriate timing and scope of AI-specific legislation across different countries and regions

Suggested Compromises

Adopting a tiered or risk-based approach to AI regulation that focuses on high-risk applications while allowing more flexibility for low-risk innovations

Pursuing harmonized data policies and AI frameworks at regional levels (e.g. African Union) to increase negotiating power with global tech companies while still enabling cross-border data flows

Leveraging existing laws and regulatory frameworks to address AI risks in the short-term while developing more comprehensive AI-specific legislation

AI is too important not to regulate, but it’s also too important not to regulate well.

speaker

Olga Skorokhodova

reason

This concise statement captures the delicate balance needed in AI regulation, acknowledging both the necessity and the challenges of effective regulation.

impact

It shifted the discussion from whether to regulate AI to how to regulate it effectively, encouraging a more nuanced approach to the topic.

The European approach on AI is putting things into different risk categories. And when you’re dealing with biometric data of the entire population and very private information and so on, that’s a high-risk environment. So yes, you might want to regulate that, but you don’t want to regulate all the innovators and start-ups to death, essentially.

speaker

Franz von Weizsäcker

reason

This comment introduces the concept of risk-based regulation, offering a practical approach to balancing innovation and protection.

impact

It deepened the conversation by providing a concrete example of how regulation can be tailored to different levels of risk, influencing subsequent discussions on regulatory approaches.

Parliament do not understand. They need to make a lot of consultations and in and out of the country. And because of the fact that there is a gap, a knowledge gap, and that would make that bill stay there for a very long time.

speaker

Honorable Al-Hajji

reason

This comment highlights the critical issue of knowledge gaps among parliamentarians when it comes to technology and AI.

impact

It shifted the focus of the discussion towards the importance of capacity building for parliamentarians, leading to further exploration of how to address this gap.

We have very, very, very few members of parliament that actually understand technology. I am an exception because I’m a software developer and I’ve been in the field for 25 years now, but I’m one in maybe hundreds or 200 members of parliament.

speaker

Honorable Al-Hajji

reason

This personal insight provides a stark illustration of the technological knowledge gap in parliaments.

impact

It reinforced the urgency of addressing the knowledge gap and led to discussions about specific capacity-building initiatives for parliamentarians.

The internet is global and legislation is national. That creates an inherent tension in all of our efforts and it creates the need to put efforts into harmonization.

speaker

Franz von Weizsäcker

reason

This comment succinctly captures a fundamental challenge in regulating the digital realm.

impact

It broadened the discussion to consider the need for international cooperation and harmonization in digital regulation, influencing subsequent comments about coordinated approaches.

Overall Assessment

These key comments shaped the discussion by highlighting the complexities of AI regulation, the importance of risk-based approaches, the critical need for capacity building among parliamentarians, and the necessity of international harmonization in digital regulation. They moved the conversation from general concerns about AI to more specific, actionable discussions about how to effectively govern the digital realm while balancing innovation, protection, and global cooperation. The comments also underscored the urgent need for parliamentarians to gain technological expertise to effectively shape digital policies.

How can capacity building initiatives for parliamentarians be improved and made more accessible?

speaker

Maha Abdel Nasser (Egyptian parliamentarian)

explanation

Many parliamentarians lack knowledge about digital technologies and AI, yet they are responsible for voting on related legislation. Improved capacity building is crucial for informed decision-making.

How can we address data colonization and ensure fair benefits from data for countries in the Global South?

speaker

Maha Abdel Nasser (Egyptian parliamentarian)

explanation

There are concerns about data from Global South countries being exploited without fair compensation or local benefit. This issue requires further exploration to ensure equitable data practices.

How can we ensure capacity building reaches parliamentarians across all relevant sectors, not just ICT committees?

speaker

Catherine Mumma (Senator from Kenya)

explanation

AI and digital technologies impact various sectors. Comprehensive capacity building across parliamentary committees is necessary for effective governance.

Should the focus be on strengthening existing laws to address potential AI harms rather than creating new AI-specific legislation?

speaker

Catherine Mumma (Senator from Kenya)

explanation

This approach may be more flexible and avoid prematurely constraining AI development while still addressing potential risks.

Is there an optimal timeframe for implementing AI regulations, and how can we balance innovation with risk management?

speaker

Jamal Fakhr (Bahrain)

explanation

There is tension between regulating early to prevent harms and waiting to avoid stifling innovation. Finding the right balance and timing is crucial.

How can collaboration between parliaments, especially in the Gulf region, be strengthened to address shared digital governance challenges?

speaker

Dr. Abadi (unspecified country)

explanation

Regional collaboration could lead to more effective and harmonized approaches to digital governance, particularly given shared cultural contexts.

How can large tech companies increase transparency about their algorithms while protecting commercial interests?

speaker

Dr. Saleh (Saudi Arabia)

explanation

Balancing algorithmic transparency with business competitiveness is a key challenge in AI governance that requires further exploration.