LIST OF PANELS

Regulation has historically played catch-up with emerging technologies. Awareness is often raised post-facto and in a manner of dealing with risks and benefits emanating from the application of the technology to society at large (Jasanoff 1997, 2016; Law & McCall 2024). The promise of technology alleviating developmental problems often ends up exacerbating them, such as in the case of the Aadhar project in India – envisaged to uniquely identify beneficiaries of transfer services, it has instead resulted in exclusionary effects (Khera 2017). This case in point proves, technology widens the chasms of social, political, and economic inequities, especially for the marginalized, in the name of whom these technological interventions are justified in the first place (Benjamin 2019; Barocas et al., 2017; Moran-Thomas 2020).

The story of development and deployment of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies in various walks of life has arguably not been much different. As a technology largely accrued to the future and increasingly permeating the present, AI is often coupled with spectacular promises of both saving mankind as much as posing the risk of rendering it extinct (Future of Life Institute 2023, Stilgoe 2020). Hence, questions of understanding, regulating, and harnessing the technology becomes a critical policy issue.

This panel will dive into various policy concerns surrounding AI with an aim to put human developmental objectives at the center of the conversation.

Scientific relevance

The current swathe of AI technologies has proven to be discriminating on grounds of race, class, gender, and even zip codes, a phenomenon popularly known as algorithmic bias (Akter et al., 2021, Stilgoe 2020, Future of Life Institute 2023). They have been proven to further systemic biases encoded in the historical data they’re trained on (Nazer et al., 2023, Gaonkar et al., 2020). Critically analyzing the design, development and deployment of AI technologies across the full stack of this technology, upstream and downstream, and opening this discussion for a wider discussion can help enrich the design of these technologies by making them more inclusive, equitable and accessible and thus enriching democratic values.

Research questions

1.     How are jurisdictions over the world dealing with evolving AI technology?  

2.     How can regulatory frameworks be designed to proactively manage the societal risks and benefits of AI-based technologies to ensure equitable outcomes?

3.     How can historical cases of technological regulation be deployed to inform the development of effective policies for the governance of AI technologies?

4.     How are narratives of hype around the technology influencing policymaking?

5.     How are Governments and the private sector negotiating authority and legitimacy over regulatory aspects of AI technology?

6.     How does geopolitics influence the governance of AI in India and other jurisdictions?

The current swathe of AI technologies has proven to be discriminating on grounds of race, class, gender, and even zip codes, a phenomenon popularly known as algorithmic bias. They have been proven to further systemic biases encoded in the historical data they’re trained on. Historically, regulation has played catch-up with emerging technologies. Awareness is often raised post-facto and in a manner of dealing with risks and benefits emanating from the application of the technology to society at large. The promise of technology alleviating developmental problems often ends up exacerbating them, such as in the case of the Aadhar project – envisaged to uniquely identify beneficiaries of transfer services, it has instead resulted in exclusionary effects. This case in point proves, technology widens the chasms of social, political, and economic inequities, especially for the marginalized, in the name of whom these technological interventions are justified in the first place

Given this context, critically analyzing the design, development and deployment of AI technologies across the full stack of this technology, upstream and downstream, and opening this discussion for a wider discussion can help enrich the design of these technologies by making them more inclusive, equitable and accessible and thus enriching democratic values.

This panel will dive into various policy concerns surrounding AI with an aim to put concerns of justice, equity, and access at the center of the conversation.

 We invite contributions from a range of fields, practices, and individuals who speak to to one or more of the following research questions:

 Research questions

1.     How are jurisdictions over the world dealing with evolving AI technology?  

2.     How can regulatory frameworks be designed to proactively manage the societal risks and benefits of AI-based technologies to ensure equitable outcomes?

3.     How can historical cases of technological regulation be deployed to inform the development of effective policies for the governance of AI technologies?

4.     How are narratives of hype around the technology influencing policymaking?

5.     How are Governments and the private sector negotiating authority and legitimacy over regulatory aspects of AI technology?

6.     How does geopolitics influence the governance of AI in India and other jurisdictions?

Types of papers expected, including but not limited to:

1.        Anticipatory governance of AI technologies

2.        Implications for caste, class, gender, linguistic, technological and regional divides

3.        Use cases from policy sectors including but not limited to health, education, urban governance

4.        Narratives, discourse, framing and communication

5.        Geopolitics and AI nationalisms

Please submit a paper title and abstract (200-300 words) by the 31st of January, 2025 to the ICPP7 conference site. We look forward to receiving your submissions and engaging in lively discussions about regulating and democratizing Aritificial Intelligence technologies.