IGF 2023 Lightning Talk #137 Generative AI as the Foundation for the Information Space

    Time
    Wednesday, 11th October, 2023 (06:50 UTC) - Wednesday, 11th October, 2023 (07:20 UTC)
    Room
    SC – Room H
    Subtheme

    Artificial Intelligence (AI) & Emerging Technologies
    Chat GPT, Generative AI, and Machine Learning
    Future & Sustainable Work in the World of Generative AI

    Tony Blair Institute for Global Change
    Pete Furlong, Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, Technical Society, Western European and Others Melanie Garson, Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, Technical Society, Western European and Others Kenddrick Chan, Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, Technical Society, Asia and the Pacific Kevin Zandermann, Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, Technical Society, Western European and Others Emma Ruiters, Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, Technical Society, Western European and Others

    Speakers

    Pete Furlong, Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, Technical Society, Western European and Others Melanie Garson, Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, Technical Society, Western European and Others

    Onsite Moderator

    Melanie Garson

    Online Moderator

    Kenddrick Chan

    Rapporteur

    Pete Furlong

    SDGs

    4.3
    4.4
    5.b
    9.5
    9.a
    9.b
    9.c

    Targets: Generative AI has the potentially to significantly shift how we consume information, impacting education, productivity, inequality, safety, and digital resilience. Having a reliable information ecosystem is essential to ensuring quality of digital education and literacy, but also fundamentally shifting how we engage with information. It’s essential that digital literacy extends to generative AI tools, impacting how we think about SDGs 4.3, 4.4, and 5.b. Yet generative AI can also change how we think about digital infrastructure – digital resilience and cyber policies must extend beyond traditional digital tools and internet infrastructure to the use of generative AI technology. SDGs 9.5, 9.a, 9.b, and 9.c all deal with the global rollout of resilient digital infrastructure.

    Format

    This talk will take the format of a presentation with relevant statistics and examples to support the overarching thesis. Reports related to this talk will be cited and provided in advanced to the audience for reference. Following the talk, there will be opportunities for audience engagement, questions and further discussions.

    Duration (minutes)
    30
    Language
    English
    Description

    The internet is managed and governed by a complex web of actors at its many levels. Backbone and Tier 1 service providers control the submarine cables and fibre networks that make up the core infrastructure of the internet. Cloud service providers, content distribution networks, and mobile network providers provide the underlying support for the modern internet. And internet platforms dictate our interface with the global internet. At each level, companies are responsible for securing our digital lives and economy in the face of evolving crises. As generative AI emerges as a new tool, it’s impact on the internet is still coming to fruition, but it has the potential to dramatically transform the information ecosystem. Despite concerns over sophisticated misinformation campaigns and bots, content has been historically human-centric. With the automation of content creation, generative AI forms a new technical “information layer” to the global internet as companies, nations, hackers, and civil society all try to understand the ways in which this new technology will shape our information ecosystem. This talk will expand upon the Tony Blair Institute’s previous work on internet fragmentation and the geopolitical power of tech companies, exploring the ways in which the developers of generative AI are shaping access to information and their potential for exploitation in crisis. It will also look at how industry, government and civil society can work effectively together to ensure safe and secure information ecosystems worldwide.

    Our team will facilitate both onsite and online participation at IGF through several methods. The online audience will be displayed on a dedicated screen, with our online moderator reporting their experience to the onsite team, relaying chat messages, and engaging with them in real time. Similarly, our onsite moderator will be ready to take questions from the live audience following the presentation portion of the talk. To encourage active participation, we will provide links to our previous work, use audience engagement tools, and share our written reports in advance. Expert speakers will discuss their experiences, followed by open discussions using platforms like sli.do. Additionally, speakers will use Twitter and LinkedIn to socialise the content for interaction with participants and those who are unable to attend in real time.