ABSTRACT
The aim of the responsible artificial intelligence policy centre initiative is to ensure that policymakers have access to timely, high-quality policy research to support decision-making on responsible AI policy issues. The Centre for Intellectual Property and Information Technology Law (CIPIT), at Kenya’s Strathmore University, will support a policy research agenda for Eastern Africa that explores how to enable and implement responsible artificial intelligence that is developed and implemented to be ethical, rights-based, inclusive, and sustainable. CIPIT will focus on key themes understanding African Artificial Intelligence, of exploring how to build inclusive and participatory approaches to AI, and of understanding and addressing power differentials. CIPIT’s policy agenda will aim to increase collaboration amongst AI stakeholders in Africa and globally, increase awareness of AI and specific issues in broader policy agendas, increase gender awareness, and to enhance the adoption and implementation of responsible AI policy by local and regional governments.
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR:
- Isaac Rutenberg
GENERAL OBJECTIVE:
Inform and shape policies and strategies on Artificial Intelligence to support the adoption of responsible AI on the African continent and ensure African experts have a voice in global fora.
SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES:
- Enhance the capacity of policymakers, technologists and business leaders to take on the challenges of AI, audit their processes and outputs, and create a framework for AI innovation.
- Identify and investigate the societal benefits, risks and harms associated with AI deployment in the pan-African context and offer proposals on pre-empting or mitigating negative effects and maximizing positive outcomes.
- Develop a set of context-appropriate resources on responsible AI for use in digital policymaking, technical and professional training, including policy guidance to navigate the technical, legal, social and ethical challenges of AI-based systems.
- Collaborate with specialists across disciplines to create transdisciplinary research and policy practitioners equipped to inform AI public policy.