Session
Organizer 1: Favour Borokini, Pollicy
Organizer 2: Irene Mwendwa, Pollicy
Organizer 3: Navina Jastini Mutabazi, Pollicy
Speaker 1: Maha Jouini, Civil Society, African Group
Speaker 2: Belona Sonna, Civil Society, African Group
Speaker 3: Shilongo Kristophina, Civil Society, African Group
Favour Borokini, Civil Society, African Group
Irene Mwendwa, Civil Society, African Group
Navina Jastini Mutabazi, Civil Society, African Group
Birds of a Feather - Auditorium - 90 Min
How can the regulation of Artificial Intelligence centre the needs of women on the continent?
How do we develop inclusive policies that promote beneficial innovation and limit AI harms?
Who are the visible and invisible stakeholders in AI innovation, and how can they be empowered to have a voice and positive impact?
Connection with previous Messages:
5. Gender Equality
5.1
5.5
5.a
5.b
5.c
Targets: Our proposal is most closely related and linked to SDG 5’s goal of Gender Equality and the empowerment of women and girls.
Some of the risks explored in our research are forms of AI and algorithmic-(enabled) discrimination against women and girls, which prevent them from living their full lives. Some of these harms are expressed through AI-facilitated colourism, the use of biased automated decision-making systems for visas, and facial recognition systems at airports at borders and airports. We also explore how AI systems under the guise of financial and educational inclusion foster exclusion without scrutiny.
Under our policy questions, we seek to answer how women can be empowered and make decisions about the use of these systems by being a part of the innovation and policymaking process and how a better framing of the issues can be expanded to cover vulnerable minorities in Africa as well through better inclusion and investment in their education and empowerment.
Description:
Artificial Intelligence has become almost ubiquitous and integral to every part of our online and digital experience. A large bulk of the average human being's 35000 daily decisions are now taken over and overseen by algorithmic systems providing. As a General Purpose Technology, AI can be developed, integrated and deployed across a wide range of sectors and industries. The effects on morality, human rights, wellbeing, social justice, psychology and emotion are considerable and worth discussing.
Launched in November 2021, Policy’s African Women in AI project sought to explore the impact of AI on African women. The study focused on women across intersecting identities exploring the influence of religion, colonisation, ethnicity, and age, among others, and the identity of African women as users and creators.
With the launching of the final paper in the project in June 2022, we seek to convene this panel in order to explore the insights gained from the study and research and discuss how they can be responsibly employed in the developing of better AI in Africa.
Through this session, we hope to cause a shift in the way AI regulation work is done in Africa through a focus on gender-specificity
We seek to promote community building, awareness and movement in Africa in relation to the impact of Artificial Intelligence
We seek to identify organisations with common ideals and values interested in human rights and policy issues related to Artificial Intelligence to promote cross-continental collaborations.
We seek to foster discussion and gain insight on the commonalities between the impact of AI and other data-enabling and data-enabled technologies to promote cross pollination and knowledge sharing.
Hybrid Format: We plan to facilitate and initiate interactions between on-site and online speakers and attendees through:
Pre-session publicity.
I. Pollicy will publicise this session and our participation at the IGF on our social media channels and the social media channels of our co-panelists.
Ii. Encourage interested participants to ask questions about the and prior to the event
During the session itself
We will have a member of our team join online. This person will be responsible for noting down questions, comments, reactions and raised hands and engage with the online audience.
At regular intervals, the onsite moderator will revert to the online moderator if there are any questions or comments worth noting.
The onsite moderator will ask the online audience questions directly and elicit their response as the session progresses.
Doing these will ensure that persons who are unable to attend on site will be able to join and participate.
Usage of IGF Official Tool.