June 10, 2024 WATCH: Developing and Deploying AI: Addressing the Challenges – Gina Neff at AI Fringe Author(s): MCTD Cambridge Prof Gina Neff speaks at AI Fringe on how the AI ecosystem of stakeholders can work better together, calling for more citizen and civil society voices at the table The AI Fringe returned to London last week to mark the AI Seoul Summit with a half-day event at the British Library’s Knowledge Centre. The event brought experts from the UK, Republic of Korea, and France together to reflect on the priorities and outcomes from the Seoul Summit – notably AI safety, innovation, and inclusivity – and reflect on the last six months since the AI Safety Summit in Bletchley Park. Our Executive Director Professor Gina Neff joined the second panel of the day, Developing and Deploying AI: Addressing the Challenges, alongside Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat House of Lords Science, Innovation and Technology spokesperson and Co-Founder and Co-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on AI), Polly Curtis (Chief Executive at Demos), and Resham Kotecha (Global Head of Policy at The Open Data Institute). The discussion was moderated by Greg Williams, Deputy Global Editorial Director of Wired UK. The panel was asked to expand on practical ways forward on AI innovation and regulation and expectations from future summits on the topic. Prof Neff emphasised the need for more seats at the discussion table, expressing concern about that lack of inclusion of Global South issues and civil society at the Bletchley Park summit. “When new technology comes into existing industries, the best thing you can do is speak to the people on the frontlines of that work – how can we learn from them?” She also spoke to the need for better socio-technical monitoring of AI systems, improvements to UK law, and new narratives that do not “throw” AI at every policy problem or cede too much power to a handful of US companies. The Minderoo Centre for Technology & Democracy’s hope for the AI Action Summit in France is that we make sure we get more voices from civil society at the table to ensure conversations remain focused on the problems citizens want to solve. Watch a recording of the session.