STL Professor Stephen Minas participated in the conference on 'Governing AI for People, Planet & Progress: AI Sovereignty and International Law' hosted by the Centre for International Law (CIL) of the National University of Singapore (NUS) on 12 December. The conference, an India AI Impact pre-summit event, was supported by by UNESCO, INDIAai, the International Law Association (ILA) and BIMSTEC (the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation).
The conference began with remarks by Dr Jon Truby (CIL, NUS), Professor Nilufer Oral (Director, CIL, NUS), Lucia Velasco, Head of AI Policy, UN Office for Digital & Emerging Technologies, S. Krishnan, Secretary of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India, and Ambassador Indra Mani Pandey, Secretary General, BIMSTEC.
Dr Minas took part in a panel on 'Global Norms and Regional Cooperation', together with Looi Teck Kheong, Global AI Ambassador, Global Council for Responsible AI, K. K. Yogaanandan, Director, BIMSTEC Secretariat, Associate Professor Rafael Dean Brown, Qatar University, Dr Duygu Özlük, Assistant Professor, Selçuk University and Josh Lee Kok Thong, Managing Director, Future of Privacy Forum APAC. Dr Minas' presentation examined the historical bases for distinctively Asian regional cooperation since the 1955 Bandung conference and suggested how this heritage influences current Asian cooperation on AI.
The conference also saw the South-East Asia launch of the UNESCO Guidelines on the Use of AI in Courts and Tribunals and an introduction to the new ILA AI & Technology Committee and its work plans.
