With generative artificial intelligence, decentralized finance, emerging prospects of quantum computing coming on policy makers’ agendas, it is necessary to think about how strategies, legislation, regulation and capacity building programmes can help all countries, but in particular those from the Global South, to prepare their societies, workforces and economies for the upcoming evolution of ICTs and digital tools available on the global marketplace. Some estimates put the additional economic numbers of generative AI alone at 900 billion worldwide, making it imperative that developing countries are able to take advantage of these opportunities in a way that maximizes benefits, while safeguarding their markets and people from potentially destabilizing or exploitative aspects of such developments.
In parallel, it is necessary to do a sober accounting of the challenges, ethical concerns, regulatory hurdles and potentials for misuse of the technology, especially generative artificial intelligence. States, academic, regional and International organizations, and public-private partnerships have sought to address these considerations through ethical and impact analysis, and proposing legal and regulatory frameworks for national adoption that would guarantee a light-touch adoption of the technology, the protection of human and intellectual property rights and equipping key sectors and public agencies with the skills necessary to mitigate the harmful effects of artificial intelligence.
The session will see speakers from the private sector, States leading the charge of AI regulation and international organizations doing the same to discuss what the applications, threats and challenges to the promulgation of AI solutions are, and what the horizons of the emerging AI regulatory frameworks is.