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31. A Two-Track Approach for Trustworthy AI

Author:
Michel Girard
Publication Date:
06-2022
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI)
Abstract:
Standards and certification programs are developed to support new trustworthy artificial intelligence (AI) legislation. Recent developments point to the emergence of a two-track approach. One track would focus on the certification of AI applications embedded in tangible products using objective criteria through established conformity assessment bodies. Regarding AI interacting with humans and used in delivering services, there is a need to create a new track. This track is needed to verify and validate compliance against subjective criteria, values and ethics, seen by many as an integral part of what constitutes trustworthy AI. The practice of “assurance as a service” can be adapted to verify and validate conformance to upcoming trustworthy AI standards. This policy brief provides an update on key legislative and policy developments framing trustworthy AI. It sketches possible approaches for the certification, verification and validation of AI embedded in products and in services and looks at recent proposals regarding the creation of a new chartered profession to deliver assurance services to achieve trustworthy AI.
Topic:
Science and Technology, Regulation, Artificial Intelligence, Emerging Technology, and Trust
Political Geography:
Global Focus

32. Retail Central Bank Digital Currency: Has Its Time Come?

Author:
Pierre L. Siklos
Publication Date:
02-2022
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI)
Abstract:
As central banks around the world prepare to launch central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), this paper looks at issues surrounding a retail version of CBDCs that would complement notes and coins for consumers. To build the public’s trust in this type of digital currency, concerns such as loss of privacy and security of financial transactions must first be addressed. In addition to these concerns, CBDCs carry the potential risks of overburdening central banks and disrupting cross-border transactions. These and other challenges can be overcome by ensuring the right regulatory and supervisory measures are in place before CBDCs take hold.
Topic:
Regulation, Finance, Central Bank, Banking, and Digital Currency
Political Geography:
Global Focus

33. Real Effects of Climate Policy: Financial Constraints and Spillovers

Author:
Söhnke M. Bartram
Publication Date:
04-2022
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
Climate change is among the most intensely debated socioeconomic issues of current times. As a response to potential catastrophic risks from climate change, governments around the world are pushing for various regulations to curb greenhouse gas emissions. However, there is far from a consensus on optimal policy approaches, and as a result, climate policies are highly fragmented across the jurisdictions in which they are designed and implemented. More importantly, it is unknown whether such localized yet uncoordinated policies are able to internalize potential externalities that may impede efforts to address climate change as a global phenomenon or simply distort allocations in the economy. For example, at the beginning of 2013, California became the first and only state to put a comprehensive mandatory carbon regulation in place in the form of a cap‐​and‐​trade system that applies universally to all industrial greenhouse gas emissions. Exploiting the introduction of the California cap‐​and‐​trade rule, we investigate the internal resource‐​allocation responses by firms and the real but unintended spillover effects of localized climate policies that arise from the importance of financial constraints. Our study analyzes the interplay between climate policy and firm behavior, and it informs policymakers regarding the effectiveness of climate regulation.
Topic:
Climate Change, Regulation, Economy, Business, and Carbon Emissions
Political Geography:
Global Focus

34. Slippery Fish: Enforcing Regulation under Subversive Adaptation

Author:
Andres Gonzalez-Lira
Publication Date:
04-2022
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
Correcting market failures and improving economic efficiency often require curbing undesirable behaviors of market agents who act to maximize their private benefits. Examples include actions that affect ecosystems, such as deforestation, pollution, and overexploitation of natural resources; actions that affect community health, such as drunk driving and open defecation; or actions that undermine government performance, such as corruption and tax evasion. Enacting and enforcing regulations is the most direct strategy to deter such behaviors. Implementing this strategy requires strong institutions to enforce laws, plus sophisticated policing to track agents’ reactions to enforcement so that rules are robust enough to curb the undesirable behavior even when regulated agents try to game the new system.
Topic:
Environment, Government, Markets, Regulation, and Adaptation
Political Geography:
Global Focus

35. Regulating and Harmonizing Biometric Ecosystems: Addressing thew Full Spectrum of Risks Using Global Safety Models and Controls

Author:
Pam Dixon
Publication Date:
03-2022
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Turkish Policy Quarterly (TPQ)
Institution:
Transatlantic Policy Quarterly (TPQ)
Abstract:
The spectrum of biometric technologies today is expansive, encompassing many types, or modalities, of biometrics, from face recognition to iris to fingerprint to DNA, used singly or in combination. Biometrics are a significant category of technology; at least 104 countries use fingerprint and/or iris as part of national ID systems,** and uses for biometrics extend well beyond the national ID system context in both private and public sector use.*** Increasingly understood as a technology of concern based on scientific data, there is a growing body of law and regulations seeking to mitigate the risks associated with biometric technologies. Current approaches to biometric regulation thus far, however, have been insufficiently constructed, and do not address the full ecosyetm of biometric modalities and the risks that can rise from them.
Topic:
Regulation, Ecology, Biology, and Public Safety
Political Geography:
Global Focus

36. Governments as Regulators and Consumers of Ethical AI

Author:
Gabby Bush and Jeannine Paterson
Publication Date:
03-2022
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Turkish Policy Quarterly (TPQ)
Institution:
Transatlantic Policy Quarterly (TPQ)
Abstract:
Algorithmic Decision-Making (ADM) and Digital Technologies have created complex and multifaceted challenges for governments and the delivery of public services. Governments must operate simultaneously as the regulator and as a consumer, while maintaining public trust. The roll out of ADM systems has provided significant failures in public policy. For example, the Federal Government of Australia and the New South Wales State Government both deploying systems with significant flaws which led to serious outcomes for both welfare recipients and governments just in the last 10 years. Solutions to confront the failure of ADM systems can be addressed more effectively at a procurement and contract level as well as through the accountability and understanding within the public service. In order to ensure the fair use of digital technologies, governments must be willing to scrutinize their own purchase of technology, ideally through the lens of AI ethical frameworks, and address their own governance and procurement policies, thereby fulfilling their responsibility as service providers to citizens.
Topic:
Government, Science and Technology, Regulation, Ethics, and Artificial Intelligence
Political Geography:
Global Focus

37. At Whose Risk? Understanding States Parties’ Implementation of Arms Trade Treaty Gender-based Violence Provisions

Author:
Anne-Séverine Fabre, Gian Giezendanner, Paul Holtom, and Emilia Dungel
Publication Date:
03-2022
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Small Arms Survey
Abstract:
The Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) is the first legally binding agreement linking international conventional arms transfers to gender-based violence (GBV), but there has been limited practical application of these specific provisions to date. At Whose Risk? Understanding States Parties’ Implementation of Arms Trade Treaty Gender-based Violence Provisions sets out to gain insight into how ATT states parties apply Article 7(4)—the main provision related to GBV—by focusing on the work of the export licensing officers carrying out this task. Specifically, the Briefing Paper contextualizes GBV in the ATT context; presents implementation guidance; and reviews recommended open-source resources for carrying out risk assessments. Finally, after analyzing reported implementation practices of ten ATT states parties, the study offers policy observations related to continued work to tackle GBV within the ATT context. Among other findings, the paper reveals that most ATT states parties interpret Article 7(4) in terms of the broader offences related to international humanitarian law and international human rights law listed under Article 7(1). Further, the study finds that the existing recommended evidence base on GBV is often scattered and unstandardized; rarely providing the type of information required by export licensing officers to conduct GBV-focused risk assessments. Finally, at the time of writing, no ATT state party had publicly indicated that it had denied an export authorization specifically due to risk of the conventional arms being used to commit or facilitate serious acts of GBV.
Topic:
Treaties and Agreements, Regulation, Arms Trade, and Gender Based Violence
Political Geography:
Global Focus

38. Platform mergers and antitrust

Author:
Geoffrey Parker, Georgios Petropoulos, and Marshall Van Alstyne
Publication Date:
01-2021
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Bruegel
Abstract:
Platform ecosystems rely on economies of scale, data-driven economies of scope, high-quality algorithmic systems and strong network effects that typically promote winner-take-most markets. Some platform firms have grown rapidly and their merger and acquisition strategies have been very important factors in their growth. Market dominance by big platforms has led to competition concerns that are difficult to assess with current merger policy tools. In this paper, we examine the acquisition strategies since their inception of the five major US firms – Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft. We discuss the main merger and acquisition theories of harm that can restrict market competition and reduce consumer welfare. To address competition concerns arising from acquisitions in big platform ecosystems this paper sets out a four-step proposal that incorporates: (1) a new ex-ante regulatory framework, (2) an updating of the conditions under which the notification of mergers should be compulsory and the burden of proof should be reversed, (3) differential regulatory priorities in investigating horizontal versus vertical acquisitions, and (4) an updating of competition enforcement tools to increase visibility of market data and trends.
Topic:
Markets, Regulation, Digital Economy, Economy, Business, and Innovation
Political Geography:
Global Focus

39. Shared Capital Initiatives – for Redistribution and Recognition

Author:
Sanjay Reddy
Publication Date:
07-2021
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center on International Cooperation (CIC)
Abstract:
Shared capital, defined as a broadly distributed pattern of rights over productive assets, can be a powerful instrument to address economic and social inequalities. We argue that initiatives to bring about shared capital can foster both redistribution and recognition, and thereby bring about more inclusive and peaceful societies. Based on experience, we suggest moreover that they are feasible and can be advanced by suitable policies and actions—at local, national, and global levels. Shared capital can involve distribution of various rights of an asset, including those of use, control, income, and transfer. This paper considers nine cases which feature some experience of shared capital involving various kinds of rights being distributed and relate these to different kinds of assets. In almost every case, the state has an important role to play in facilitating the distribution of rights.
Topic:
Regulation, Inequality, Peace, Sustainability, Capital, Redistribution, and Inclusion
Political Geography:
Global Focus

40. Diagnosing Corruption in the Extractive Sector: A Tool for Research and Action

Author:
Alexandra Gillies, Sebastian Sahla, Matthieu Salomon, and Tom Shipley
Publication Date:
09-2021
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Natural Resource Governance Institute
Abstract:
NRGI’s corruption diagnostic tool aims to support anticorruption actors as they tackle the complex and sensitive challenge of extractive sector corruption. Drawing on extensive sector-specific analysis, the tool enables its users to: Gather evidence and convene consultations to identify the forms of corruption most likely to negatively impact their country’s extractive industries; Diagnose the causes of these forms of corruption; Build an evidence-based anticorruption action plan, focused on preventing future corruption. The tool prioritizes multi-stakeholder participation, and its flexible approach allows users to adapt the content and process to meet their needs.
Topic:
Corruption, Natural Resources, Regulation, and Industry
Political Geography:
Global Focus