IGF 2018 WS #170 Accountability for Human Rights: Mitigate Unfair Bias in AI

The workshop has a panel that is diverse in gender, nationalities (six nationalities among the moderator and the five speakers), and stakeholder and sector perspectives and expertise, including government, intergovernmental organization, civil society, private sector, and technical roles and expertise, as well as regional (including the Global South) and international perspectives. The workshop will be organized and moderated by Mr. Bernard Shen, Assistant General Counsel – Human Rights, in the Corporate, External and Legal Affairs department at Microsoft. His work at Microsoft focuses on human rights policy and practice in cloud technology and services, including AI technology and service. Given the focus of his work, he is well positioned to organize the workshop and serve as moderator. He will work closely with the speakers to prepare for and shape the workshop and develop a plan to create a dynamic discussion of the questions on the agenda. During the workshop, he will focus on facilitating an interactive discussion among the speakers, and between the speakers and the audience. Ms. Peggy Hicks is a national of the United States, and is based in Geneva, Switzerland. She is the Director of the Thematic Engagement, Special Procedures and Right to Development Division, in the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). She brings global experience and perspectives to the discussion on the opportunities and concerns in the use of AI, including the risk of unfair bias on the basis of age, gender, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion or economic or other status, the mitigation of those risks, and the pursuit of responsible use of AI in support of Sustainable Development Goals, especially SDG#5 (Gender Equality) and SDG#10 (Reduced Inequalities). Mr. David Reichel is a national of Austria and is based in Vienna, Austria. His work at the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (“FRA”) assesses the pros and cons for fundamental rights of using artificial intelligence and big data for public administration and business purposes in selected EU Member States (including concerns regarding discrimination in data-supported decision making). Give his role and work at FRA, he is uniquely positioned to provide EU perspective and expertise on the responsible use of AI to mitigate the risk of unfair bias, as well as the opportunities for the use of AI to advance fundamental rights. Ms. Sana Khareghani is a national of Canada, and she is based in the United Kingdom. As Deputy Director, Head of joint Office of Artificial Intelligence for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) in the UK government, she brings her governmental perspective to this multi-stakeholder dialog on both the concerns and the opportunities regarding human rights in the use of AI. Ms. Wafa Ben-Hassine is a national of both Tunisia and the United States. She is based in Tunisia. As Access Now’s policy and advocacy lead for the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA), she brings to the discussion a civil society perspective as well as experience with issues and concerns in the Global South. Ms. Layla El Asri is a national of both Morocco and France. She has a Ph.D. in computer science and is a research manager at Microsoft Research lab in Montreal, Canada. Her research is on conversational agents and machine learning. She studies conversational agents that accomplish tasks such as personal assistants. Her expertise on cutting-edge AI technology will help orient the discussion with a shared and deeper understanding of AI. The following are more detailed bios for the moderator and the five speakers: [Organizer & Moderator] Mr. Bernard Shen is an Assistant General Counsel in the Corporate, External, and Legal Affairs department at Microsoft Corporation. His work focuses on Microsoft’s policy and practice on human rights across its products and services, and on engagement with external stakeholders on human rights issues and policies. Bernard has also provided legal support for various Microsoft products and technologies including Windows, cloud services, silicon technology, and health solutions. He serves as Co-Chair of the Policy Committee of the Global Network Initiative, and as Immediate Past Chair of the International Practice Section of the Washington State Bar Association. He worked in a business capacity in the telecommunication industry before becoming an attorney. Bernard received his JD from Northwestern University School of Law, MBA from Cornell University Johnson Graduate School of Management, and B. Commerce from the University of Toronto. More detailed bios for the five speakers: Ms. Peggy Hicks. Since January 2016, Peggy Hicks has served as director of the Thematic Engagement, Special Procedures and Right to Development Division at the UN's human rights office. From 2005 to 2015, she was global advocacy director at Human Rights Watch, where she was responsible for coordinating Human Rights Watch's advocacy team and providing direction to its advocacy worldwide. Ms. Hicks previously served as director of the Office of Returns and Communities in the UN mission in Kosovo and as Deputy High Representative for Human Rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina. She has also worked as the Director of Programs for the International Human Rights Law Group (now Global Rights), clinical professor of human rights and refugee law at the University of Minnesota Law School, and as an expert consultant for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Ms. Hicks is a graduate of Columbia Law School and the University of Michigan. Mr. David Reichel works as a researcher in the Freedoms and Justice Department of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (“FRA”). His areas of expertise include statistical data analysis, data quality and statistical data visualisation. He has extensive experience in working with data and statistics in an international context. He is managing FRA’s project on “Artificial Intelligence, Big Data and Fundamental Rights”. This project assesses the pros and cons for fundamental rights of using artificial intelligence (AI) and big data for public administration and business purposes in selected EU Member States, including discrimination in data-supported decision making. Ms. Sana Khareghani is Deputy Director, Head of Office of Artificial Intelligence, DCMS/BEIS, HMG. She has twenty years’ experience in technology, business and consulting across the UK, North America, continental Europe and the Middle East. She is now responsible for running the joint Office for Artificial Intelligence for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) within HMG. Ms. Wafa Ben-Hassine is a Policy Counsel for Access Now, a global organization defending and extending the digital rights of users at risk. She leads Access Now’s policy and advocacy arms in the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA). She is a New York qualified attorney specializing in international law, human rights, and technology. Ms. Layla El Asri is a research manager at Microsoft Research Montreal. After getting a Ph.D. in computer science from Université de Lorraine in 2016, she joined the team at Maluuba in Montreal as a research scientist. Maluuba was acquired by Microsoft in 2017 and is now a research lab within Microsoft Research. The mission of this lab is to create literate machines that can read, reason, and communicate. Layla’s research is on conversational agents and machine learning. She studies conversational agents that accomplish tasks such as personal assistants and looks for ways to build such agents automatically from data.