From 13 to 20 April, the Forum on Information and Democracy organized a series of workshops with its partner organizations in West Africa to present the policy recommendations “AI as a Public Good: Ensuring democratic control of AI in the Information Space” and elaborate country specific advocacy strategies.
Published on 28 February 2024, the report AI as a Public Good: Ensuring democratic control of AI in the Information Space outlines more than 200 policy recommendations to ensure that artificial intelligence serves citizens, democracy and the right to information. These recommendations were elaborated based on an inclusive and participatory working group co-chaired by Laura Schertel Mendes, Brazilian Lawyer, and Jonathan Stray, American Computer Scientist.
Throughout the working group process, the Forum and its partner organizations in Benin, Ghana, Ivory Coast, India, Latin America, Lebanon, Senegal and South Africa mobilized over 60 experts to contribute to the development of its recommendations. This notably allowed to shed light on specific challenges in different contexts and regions.
From local to global, the Forum is also committed to work from global to local and has been hosting a series of workshops with its partners to disseminate the final report of the working group and devise national priorities for implementation. This was notably the case in Western Africa, where Katharina Zügel, Policy Manager of the Forum, joined three workshops between 13 and 20 April, respectfully co-hosted with its partners Jonction, ALCRER and REPPRELCI.
During these workshops, Katharina shared the key recommendations of the report with expert contributors, journalists and government officials. Together, they also worked in identifying key national or regional priorities, notably:
- building AI literacy among the general public and particularly among journalists to encourage a responsible use of artificial intelligence
- the need for civil society involvement in AI governance and AI strategies when existing
- the importance of strengthening independent research on AI to better understand the impact of these systems
- the need to strengthen data governance frameworks, sovereignty and the availability of local data to train AI’s that are relevant for the local context
- the importance of addressing the dangers of disinformation and deepfakes particularly during elections, including the challenges emanating from foreign interference in the information space
The Forum also joined their Lebanese partner Maharat Foundation on 18 March and hosted an online discussion with their Ghanaian partner CFF Ghana on 17 April. The next such workshop will be held on 2 May with Observacom, a founding member of the Forum, in Santiago de Chile on the margins of the UNESCO World Press Freedom Conference.