Algorithms and artificial intelligence play an increasingly important part in our economies and societies. In particular, the challenges posed by the pandemic, the post-pandemic recovery and sustainability greatly depend on public policy choices related to AI.
Join the EU Delegation to the UK for an expert panel discussion on how AI can help us build societies that are more resilient and a sustainable future. How can we ensure that AI applications are bias-free and will not increase inequalities (income, gender, racial etc)? How can we promote values and ethics among like-minded countries?
This event will feature a keynote speech by Mark Boris Andrijanič, Slovenian Minister for Digital Transformation followed by an expert panel discussion.
Keynote Speaker:
Mark Boris Andrijanič – The Republic of Slovenia’s Minister for Digital Transformation, Mark Boris Andrijanič graduated with honours from the Faculty of Law in Ljubljana, and obtained the title of Master of Public Policy (MPP) at the University of Oxford. Since April 2021, he has been leading the Strategic Council for Digitization at the Government of the Republic of Slovenia. Between 2016 and 2021, technology company Uber employed him, where he was director of corporate affairs in Central and Eastern Europe. Prior to that, he was a researcher at the Martens Centre for European Studies in Brussels, where he worked on European digital and economic policies. He had previously advised the Sierra Leone government on economic reforms. In Slovenia, he co-founded and led a number of non-governmental organizations for the promotion of active citizenship and entrepreneurship, including the Network of Ideas. He still runs the Oxbridge Club of Slovenia, which connects Slovenes who studied in Oxford and Cambridge. Since 2017, he has been a David Rockefeller Fellow with the Trilateral Commission and a Millennium Fellow with the Atlantic Council. In 2021, he became a member of the Rotary Club Ljubljana. As a speaker, he has participated in numerous international conferences on new technologies in Europe and the United States.
Moderated by:
Alexandra Mousavizadeh – Partner at Tortoise Media, the slow-news media company founded by James Harding launched in April 2019. Alexandra is the Director of the Tortoise Intelligence team which specialises in global and industry indices and data analytics. Creator of the ground-breaking Global AI Index launched in December 2019, and the recently released Responsibility100 Index. She has 20 years’ experience in the ratings and index business and has worked extensively across Central Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Previously, she directed the expansion of the Legatum Institute’s flagship publication, The Prosperity Index, and all its bespoke metrics based analysis & policy design for governments. Prior roles include Sovereign Analyst for Moody’s with specific focus on Russia, Kazakhstan, Georgia and Armenia from 1995 – 2007. From 2013-14 she also covered Sub-Saharan Africa. Alexandra became head of Country Risk Management, EMEA, Morgan Stanley’s London office prior to taking up the role as CEO of ARC Ratings, a global emerging markets based ratings agency.
On the panel:
Juha Heikkilä – Adviser for Artificial Intelligence in the European Commission Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology, focusing on international aspects. He has been strongly involved in developing the Commission activities in Artificial Intelligence and Robotics. He led a unit which was instrumental in developing the EU AI strategy, as first published in the Communication on Artificial Intelligence for Europe, in the Coordinated Plan on Artificial Intelligence and the ecosystem of excellence of the White Paper on AI, and engaging with the High-Level Expert Group on AI. He oversaw a significant funding programme on Robotics and AI, including the €700m Public-Private Partnership in Robotics. He was also setting up the new Public-Private Partnership in AI, Data and Robotics, which started in June 2021. Previously, Juha did computational linguistic research at the University of Helsinki, and he holds a PhD in Linguistics from the University of Cambridge.
John Shawe-Taylor – professor of Computational Statistics and Machine Learning at University College London and Director of the International Research Centre on Artificial Intelligence (IRCAI) under the auspices of UNESCO at the Jozef Stefan Institute in Slovenia. He has assembled a series of influential European Networks of Excellence. The scientific coordination of these projects has influenced a generation of researchers and promoted the widespread uptake of machine learning in both science and industry that we are currently witnessing. More recently he coordinated the X5gon (x5gon.org) European project developing infrastructure and portals for AI enhanced delivery of educational materials. He was appointed UNESCO Chair of Artificial Intelligence in November 2018 and is the leading trustee of the UK Charity, Knowledge 4 All Foundation, championing the cause of open education and also helping to establish a network of AI researchers and practitioners in sub-Saharan Africa.
Louise Sheridan – Deputy Director for Strategy at the Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation. Prior to joining the CDEI, Louise has worked extensively with the UK and international tech and telecoms sectors in government and the private sector. Previous roles include COO of an Edtech startup driving inclusive entrepreneur education; establishing the UK government’s international tech hub network across Africa, Brazil, Indonesia, and India; and leading UK participation in Digital Nations, an international collaboration to improve digital public services. She is passionate about the potential of responsible innovation to solve global issues and drive inclusive economic growth.
Dr Mahlet (Milly) Zimeta – Head of Public Policy at the Open Data Institute. Prior to joining the ODI in September 2020, Milly was Senior Policy Adviser at the Royal Society, the independent scientific academy of the UK, where she led the Society’s policy programme on Data and Digital Disruption including projects on data governance, data science skills, and privacy enhancing technologies. Milly was previously Programme Manager at the Alan Turing Institute, Britain’s national institute for data science and AI, where she managed the Turing’s research partnership programmes in Health and in Finance/Economic Data Science. She has also worked at the Medical Research Council, and served on an Advisory Group at Chatham House. She holds degrees in philosophy from Oxford, Cambridge and York (UK).