Session
IEEE SA / Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
High level government representative(s) Norway IEEE leadership and experts, including Raja Chatila, Sorbonne and Virginia Dignum, Umeå University (co-Chairs of the Global Initiative on Ethics of Autonomous and Intelligent Systems) Several representatives from Norwegian and global industry, IEEE technology expert ecosystem, and the research community, as well as (geographically diverse) members the Global Initiative on Ethics of Autonomous and Intelligent Systems, are expected to be involved. The list will be updated in consultation with the IGF Secretariat once the session has been confirmed. Proposed list of participants, subject to changes: Missy Cummings, George Mason University Nicholas Davis, UTS Human Technology Elina Noor, Carnegie Endowment Inga Strumke, NTNU Gary Marcus, Professor Emeritus NYU Alpesh Shah, IEEE Karen McCabe IEEE Clara Neppel, IEEE Amandeep Gill, UN Doreen Bogdan, ITU Martin Chungong, IPU Other UN organisations, including IAEA CERN Sir Geoff Mulgan Juergen Stock (frm SG Interpol) Robert Mood (ret Gen, Norwegian Armed Forces) Vivi Ringnes Berrefjord, Norwegian DOD Gisele Waters, Chair AI Procurement Standards Sam Gregory, Witness Hilary Sutcliffe, Society Inside Wendell Wallach, Yale Corinne Momal Vanian, Kofi Annan Foundation Mats Berdal, Kings College Filippa Lentzos, Kings College Benedikt Franke, Munich Security Conference Blaise Aguera Y Arcas, Google Tom Philebeck, Swift Partners Cordel Green Johan Andresen, FERD Kerim Nisangiouclu, UIB Dmitri Alperovitch, fmr Crowdstrike Anton de Plessis, Dep Att Gen, South Africa Pascale Fung, University of HK/META Florence Hudson, Northeast Big Data Innovation Hub Gaia Marcus, Ada Lovelace Eryk Salvaggio, Rochester Christopher Whitt, IEEE/Oceans society Many more will be added, proposed speakers and participants confirmed, and full list revised once the session is confirmed. As the IGF Secretariat is well aware, for a high-level session, details cannot be finalised until the session is approved and official joint invitations can be sent out in accordance with protocol requirements.
High level government representative(s) Norway IEEE leadership and experts, including Raja Chatila, Sorbonne and Virginia Dignum, Umeå University (co-Chairs of the Global Initiative on Ethics of Autonomous and Intelligent Systems) Several representatives from Norwegian and global industry, IEEE technology expert ecosystem, and the research community, as well as (geographically diverse) members the Global Initiative on Ethics of Autonomous and Intelligent Systems, are expected to be involved. The list will be updated in consultation with the IGF Secretariat once the session has been confirmed. Proposed list of participants, subject to changes: Missy Cummings, George Mason University Nicholas Davis, UTS Human Technology Elina Noor, Carnegie Endowment Inga Strumke, NTNU Gary Marcus, Professor Emeritus NYU Alpesh Shah, IEEE Karen McCabe IEEE Clara Neppel, IEEE Amandeep Gill, UN Doreen Bogdan, ITU Martin Chungong, IPU Other UN organisations, including IAEA CERN Sir Geoff Mulgan Juergen Stock (frm SG Interpol) Robert Mood (ret Gen, Norwegian Armed Forces) Vivi Ringnes Berrefjord, Norwegian DOD Gisele Waters, Chair AI Procurement Standards Sam Gregory, Witness Hilary Sutcliffe, Society Inside Wendell Wallach, Yale Corinne Momal Vanian, Kofi Annan Foundation Mats Berdal, Kings College Filippa Lentzos, Kings College Benedikt Franke, Munich Security Conference Blaise Aguera Y Arcas, Google Tom Philebeck, Swift Partners Cordel Green Johan Andresen, FERD Kerim Nisangiouclu, UIB Dmitri Alperovitch, fmr Crowdstrike Anton de Plessis, Dep Att Gen, South Africa Pascale Fung, University of HK/META Florence Hudson, Northeast Big Data Innovation Hub Gaia Marcus, Ada Lovelace Eryk Salvaggio, Rochester Christopher Whitt, IEEE/Oceans society Many more will be added, proposed speakers and participants confirmed, and full list revised once the session is confirmed. As the IGF Secretariat is well aware, for a high-level session, details cannot be finalised until the session is approved and official joint invitations can be sent out in accordance with protocol requirements.
Organization's Website
Speakers
Speakers and participants will be diverse, representing all continents, disciplines, and areas of domain expertise.
Onsite Moderator
Anja Kaspersen/Ole Martin Martinsen
Online Moderator
Constance Weise
Rapporteur
Anja Kaspersen/Ole Martin Martinsen
SDGs
3. Good Health and Well-Being
7. Affordable and Clean Energy
9. Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
16. Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
Targets: These sessions align closely with SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-being), SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure), SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production), SDG 13 (Climate Action), SDG 16 (Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions), and SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals) by addressing AI’s role in sustainability, resilience, governance, and security. • SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-being): AI plays a growing role in public services, healthcare, and infrastructure, directly impacting societal well-being. Session 1 explores how governance frameworks can ensure the safety, reliability, and resilience of AI in public systems, preventing disruptions that could affect essential services, including healthcare. Session 3 focuses on securing digital infrastructure, which is crucial for stable health systems, telemedicine, and emergency response networks. • SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure): AI is deeply embedded in modern infrastructure, from energy systems to global data networks. Session 3 examines how AI-driven processes can be secured, resilient, and sustainable, ensuring long-term stability in critical infrastructure while fostering responsible industrial innovation. • SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production): Session 2 addresses AI’s growing environmental footprint, focusing on ways to reduce resource-intensive computing, energy consumption, and hardware waste. The discussion will highlight sustainable AI practices, data centre efficiency, and responsible supply chains. • SDG 13 (Climate Action): AI’s increasing energy and resource demands pose significant sustainability challenges. Session 2 will explore strategies to minimise AI’s carbon footprint, develop energy-efficient computing practices, and align AI-driven innovation with climate resilience and sustainability commitments. • SDG 16 (Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions): As AI becomes integral to governance, public decision-making, and critical infrastructure, ensuring accountability, transparency, and resilience is essential. Session 1 will explore how governance frameworks can evolve to prevent systemic vulnerabilities, safeguard public institutions, and foster trust in AI-powered governance. • SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals): AI has the potential to drive sustainable development, but realising this requires international collaboration, multi-stakeholder engagement, and cross-sectoral partnerships. These sessions will focus on bridging policy, technology, and governance expertise to ensure AI serves as a catalyst for sustainability, digital resilience, and inclusive global cooperation. By fostering dialogue among governments, industry leaders, academia, and civil society, these discussions will contribute to strengthening multilateral frameworks for AI governance and responsible technological development. By integrating governance, sustainability, and resilience principles into AI’s development and oversight, these sessions will help shape policy recommendations, technical safeguards, and governance frameworks that ensure AI serves as a driver of innovation, sustainability, security, and societal well-being through collaborative global action.
7. Affordable and Clean Energy
9. Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
16. Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
Targets: These sessions align closely with SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-being), SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure), SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production), SDG 13 (Climate Action), SDG 16 (Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions), and SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals) by addressing AI’s role in sustainability, resilience, governance, and security. • SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-being): AI plays a growing role in public services, healthcare, and infrastructure, directly impacting societal well-being. Session 1 explores how governance frameworks can ensure the safety, reliability, and resilience of AI in public systems, preventing disruptions that could affect essential services, including healthcare. Session 3 focuses on securing digital infrastructure, which is crucial for stable health systems, telemedicine, and emergency response networks. • SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure): AI is deeply embedded in modern infrastructure, from energy systems to global data networks. Session 3 examines how AI-driven processes can be secured, resilient, and sustainable, ensuring long-term stability in critical infrastructure while fostering responsible industrial innovation. • SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production): Session 2 addresses AI’s growing environmental footprint, focusing on ways to reduce resource-intensive computing, energy consumption, and hardware waste. The discussion will highlight sustainable AI practices, data centre efficiency, and responsible supply chains. • SDG 13 (Climate Action): AI’s increasing energy and resource demands pose significant sustainability challenges. Session 2 will explore strategies to minimise AI’s carbon footprint, develop energy-efficient computing practices, and align AI-driven innovation with climate resilience and sustainability commitments. • SDG 16 (Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions): As AI becomes integral to governance, public decision-making, and critical infrastructure, ensuring accountability, transparency, and resilience is essential. Session 1 will explore how governance frameworks can evolve to prevent systemic vulnerabilities, safeguard public institutions, and foster trust in AI-powered governance. • SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals): AI has the potential to drive sustainable development, but realising this requires international collaboration, multi-stakeholder engagement, and cross-sectoral partnerships. These sessions will focus on bridging policy, technology, and governance expertise to ensure AI serves as a catalyst for sustainability, digital resilience, and inclusive global cooperation. By fostering dialogue among governments, industry leaders, academia, and civil society, these discussions will contribute to strengthening multilateral frameworks for AI governance and responsible technological development. By integrating governance, sustainability, and resilience principles into AI’s development and oversight, these sessions will help shape policy recommendations, technical safeguards, and governance frameworks that ensure AI serves as a driver of innovation, sustainability, security, and societal well-being through collaborative global action.
Format
Roundtable
This session is intended as a half-day event (six hours), beginning with lunch and followed by three interconnected sessions carefully structured around common themes. It is therefore crucial that the session is approved for longer than 120 minutes. Given the breadth and depth of the issues to be explored, we propose organising three consecutive 120-minute sessions, with breaks for refreshments and snacks. Ideally, the schedule would run from 12:00–13:00 (lunch), followed by sessions from 13:00–18:00, designed to flow seamlessly into one another. The objective is to produce a final report that provides both deep insights and concrete outcomes, contributing to SDG targets. We will follow up with direct outreach to the IGF Secretariat to explore ways to accommodate this, subject to a decision on approving this as a Day 0 event, organised jointly by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and IEEE SA Regarding the format, while IGF requires sessions to be submitted with all speakers confirmed, we ask for your understanding given the exceptional circumstances. As this is a joint initiative with the host country, invitations, format, and participation can only be finalised once the session structure has been officially confirmed.
This session is intended as a half-day event (six hours), beginning with lunch and followed by three interconnected sessions carefully structured around common themes. It is therefore crucial that the session is approved for longer than 120 minutes. Given the breadth and depth of the issues to be explored, we propose organising three consecutive 120-minute sessions, with breaks for refreshments and snacks. Ideally, the schedule would run from 12:00–13:00 (lunch), followed by sessions from 13:00–18:00, designed to flow seamlessly into one another. The objective is to produce a final report that provides both deep insights and concrete outcomes, contributing to SDG targets. We will follow up with direct outreach to the IGF Secretariat to explore ways to accommodate this, subject to a decision on approving this as a Day 0 event, organised jointly by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and IEEE SA Regarding the format, while IGF requires sessions to be submitted with all speakers confirmed, we ask for your understanding given the exceptional circumstances. As this is a joint initiative with the host country, invitations, format, and participation can only be finalised once the session structure has been officially confirmed.
Duration (minutes)
120
Description
Session 1: Addressing New Vulnerabilities—Navigating a Changing Digital Landscape
AI is increasingly embedded within governance, public functions, and critical infrastructure, shaping decision-making processes and system interactions in ways that are often overlooked. Yet oversight remains fragmented, and governance efforts tend to focus on managing individual risks rather than addressing structural vulnerabilities. Existing frameworks struggle to account for how AI is integrated into broader sociotechnical and institutional systems, leaving gaps in safeguards, resilience, and accountability.
This session moves beyond static governance debates to ask: How must AI system architecture evolve to ensure not just safety and reliability, but the capacity to anticipate failures, recalibrate responses, and function effectively within governance structures? What misalignments between policy, technical standards, and operational realities are holding back more adaptive and effective oversight? By shifting the focus to governance as an ongoing process rather than a fixed set of rules, this discussion will explore new approaches to strengthening systemic preparedness in an era of accelerating complexity.
Session 2: AI and Sustainability—Charting a Green Path for Digital Transformation
The environmental footprint of AI is expanding, shaped by the increasing compute demands of data processing, model training, and large-scale infrastructure. This growth places significant pressure on energy resources, water usage, and hardware supply chains, raising critical sustainability challenges. While AI is being applied to address environmental issues, the systems supporting it often remain resource-intensive, creating tensions between digital expansion and ecological impact.
This session examines the realities of AI’s environmental cost and explores strategies for mitigating its footprint—from optimising data centre efficiency and hardware sustainability to policy frameworks that align digital infrastructure with long-term environmental resilience. How can sustainability be integrated into AI development and deployment from the outset rather than as an afterthought?
Session 3: Securing Digital Infrastructure—Critical Systems Safety in an AI-Powered World
The integration of AI into strategic infrastructure supporting economic, social, and security functions introduces new security challenges, increasing exposure to system failures, data integrity risks, and disruptions across essential networks. As AI-enabled processes become embedded in key operational frameworks and digital ecosystems—spanning power grids, health operations and devices, undersea cables, and global data infrastructure—the resilience of these interconnected systems becomes increasingly important.
This session examines how to strengthen the safety and reliability of critical systems, reinforce infrastructure resilience, and anticipate emerging risks. It will explore the dependencies AI creates within essential infrastructure and how governance frameworks can evolve to mitigate cascading failures and systemic vulnerabilities.
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Together, these sessions will challenge prevailing governance models and explore how policy, technical, and operational frameworks must evolve to ensure AI is used and safeguarded in ways that strengthen societal resilience, uphold environmental and ethical responsibilities, and reinforce the security of critical infrastructure. The focus here is not just on mitigating risks after they emerge but on embedding intentional safeguards that ensure AI systems are developed and used in ways that are, ethically and scientifically robust, adaptive, and aligned with the public interest.
Note: The intention is for the outcome from these sessions could be developed into a brief report for further consideration and integrated into existing global and multilateral deliberations, including upcoming IGF sessions.
Policy questions to be explored:
Session 1: Addressing New Vulnerabilities—AI in a Changing Digital Landscape
1. How can governance frameworks evolve to address AI’s integration into broader sociotechnical and institutional systems rather than focusing on isolated risks? How can sound and thoughtful safeguards and standards ensure secure interoperability while fostering responsible AI innovation?
2. What mechanisms are needed to ensure AI systems can anticipate failures, recalibrate responses, and function effectively within complex governance structures?
3. How can policy, technical standards, and operational oversight be better aligned to create a more adaptive and effective AI governance model?
Session 2: AI and Sustainability—Charting a Green Path for Digital Transformation
1. How can regulatory and policy frameworks incentivise the development of energy-efficient AI systems and sustainable digital infrastructure? How can safeguards and standards ensure AI-driven innovation aligns with secure and sustainable interoperability?
2. What strategies can be implemented to reduce AI’s environmental impact across its lifecycle, from data centre efficiency to hardware production and disposal?
3. How can sustainability principles be embedded into AI development from the outset, ensuring alignment with long-term environmental goals rather than retroactive mitigation?
Session 3: Securing Digital Infrastructure—Critical Systems Safety in an AI-Powered World
1. How can governance structures and regulatory frameworks evolve to ensure the resilience and security of AI-integrated critical infrastructure? How can well-designed safeguards and standards support and secure interoperability while enabling AI-driven innovation in critical systems?
2. What safeguards are necessary to prevent AI-induced systemic vulnerabilities in essential networks, such as health operations, power grids, undersea cables, and global data infrastructure?
3. How can international cooperation and public-private collaboration strengthen the security of AI-powered digital infrastructure against emerging cyber and operational threats?
We hope this session will be scheduled for the afternoon, Norwegian time, to facilitate broad online participation across time zones. The event will begin with an offline lunch from 12:00–13:00, followed by three back-to-back hybrid sessions with short breaks in between. These sessions will be conducted in a hybrid format, combining online and in-person participation, and will be structured around the key themes and policy questions outlined above. While many speakers will join remotely, there will also be a strong core of in-person participants—experts representing a diverse range of issues—ensuring a rich and dynamic discussion in the room.
We hope this session will be scheduled for the afternoon, Norwegian time, to facilitate broad online participation across time zones. The event will begin with an offline lunch from 12:00–13:00, followed by three back-to-back hybrid sessions with short breaks in between. These sessions will be conducted in a hybrid format, combining online and in-person participation, and will be structured around the key themes and policy questions outlined above. While many speakers will join remotely, there will also be a strong core of in-person participants—experts representing a diverse range of issues—ensuring a rich and dynamic discussion in the room.