AIWS City discussion with Paul Twomey

On September 6, Ramu Damodaran, co-chair of the United Nations Centennial Initiative, interviewed Mr. Paul Twomey, a founding figure and former CEO of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a speaker at the Club de Madrid – BGF Policy Lab on Fundamental Rights in AI & Digital Societies. Mr. Ramu Damodaran wrote:

“Personal agency” is critical in the age of artificial intelligence notes Paul Twomey, Distinguished Fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation, in an AIWS City Discussion. This implies a measurement of human well-being not just in material terms, or reflections in GDP, but those in a social and environmental context as well, reasserting the primacy of the human person and distinguishing between her role as “individual” and as “user.”

This would assure the individual’s control over data derived from her and the means by which it is used. But, equally, it would place upon the individual the responsibility to step up for her rights and not be overwhelmed by technologies. Paul Twomey noted that the moral and ethical questions relating to AI, and the continuing quest for global enlightenment, are not necessarily new; their core elements are reflected in the teachings and debates within religion and faith over the centuries, for instance, but allow instinctive adaptation to our own times.