Speaker interview: Society gets the behaviour it rewards

Jana Novohradska, AI Consultant to Deputy Prime Minister`s Office of Slovakia & Gender Equality Rapporteur CAHAI Council of Europe, is one of the panelists on our 'Governing AI' panel at World Summit AI Americas in Montreal. We caught up with her ahead of the summit.

What do you see as the three most important things in relation to Governing AI at the moment?

The 3 most important things to govern in relation to AI are:

Definition of a strategic set of end states.
Formulation of executive policies.
Execution of direct measures.

Evolving AI tools are transforming the way we live. The transformative changes enabled by deployed AI tools are driven by a mix of market forces, existing and upcoming regulatory frameworks and fast progressing AI research.

My work is focused on governing AI in order to achieve trustworthy and human centric inclusion of AI tools into our everyday lives, not to stifle innovation or creativity.

I understand the end states of human centric AI are to help achieve freedom of movement (infrastructure, smart cities, smart cars, smart sensors helping us monitor the quality of air, traffic, safety, etc.), access to generally available high quality education and sustainable and responsible healthcare system including healthy food chain.

Trustworthy AI is based on the premise of being able to verify AI, to satisfy the checks and balances principle, which is one of the cornerstones of democracy.

Explainable AI is a fascinating research topic and I have been inspired by the work of Andreas Holzinger, and also, in the field of deployment and categorisation of AI systems and tools, by the work of Matthias Spielkamp and Algorithm Watch.

What’s your biggest fear in relation to the application of AI?

Misuse of AI research and tools to facilitate end to human lives on even bigger scale, further existing and ongoing human suffering and deterioration of quality of human lives.

If you could solve any global problem in the world with AI, what would it be?

The inclusion problem, which I define as follows.

The diverse global framework of members and their interactions which needs an ‘ideal’ set of rules of engagement to achieve rule of law, democracy and adherence to human rights. Society gets the behaviour it rewards. Let me lean on Einstein. Though there are different versions of this quote online (#2MuchInformation) the one that sounds the coolest is: “If I were given an hour in which to do a problem upon which my life depended, I would spend 40 minutes studying it, 15 minutes reviewing it and 5 minutes solving it.”

I would love AI to come up with a set of rules of engagement to achieve democracy, rule of law and adherence to human rights.

What’s the “coolest”/ most “wow-factor" thing you’ve seen so far in with the use of AI in the sector you work in?

Sophia, the humanoid robot.

Sophia the humanoid robot

Which 2 people do you admire most in the world of AI in terms of their work?

Elon Musk, just ‘cause he is cool. I am still searching for the second one.

And finally, what are you most excited about at World Summit Americas?

Brainstorming, exchange of ideas and views

Join Jana and more than 70 other incredible speakers at World Summit AI Americas, 25-26 March 2020. Book ticket now

WORLD SUMMIT AI AMERICAS

March 25-26th 2020

Palais des congrès de Montréal

Montreal, Canada

americas.worldsummit.ai

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WORLD SUMMIT AI AMERICAS

March 25-26th 2020

Palais des congrès de Montréal

Montreal, Canada

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INTELLIGENT HEALTH

09-10 September 2020

Basel, Switzerland

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WORLD SUMMIT AI

07-08 October 2020

Amsterdam, The Netherlands