Two highly respected Jamaican leaders in the local, regional, and global digital, media, and regulatory spaces will be among over 40 international experts to address the virtual 3rd Annual Artificial Intelligence for Information Accessibility (AI4IA) today to commemorate the International Day for Universal Access to Information (IDUAI).

Today’s online conference, starting at 1:00 pm, will raise various issues, including AI localism; using AI to overcome disabilities; ethical digital transformation; the intersection of AI, art, and creativity; and AI law and ethics.

Presenters will include Cordel Green, executive director of the Broadcasting Commission, vice-chairman of the UNESCO Information For All Programme (IFAP) and chairman of the UNESCO IFAP Working Group on Information Accessibility. The other Jamaican will be Dr Ricardo Anderson, an academic and consultant in the research and development of Intelligent Systems with more than 19 years of experience integrating data knowledge into software systems.

Commenting on the purpose of the conference, Green said: “Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly all around us and very much influencing what we read, see, hear, think about, and do. But AI is a tool. It is not our saviour or master. So we can — and must — insist on AI development, deployment, and access, which is respectful of human rights and protects the most vulnerable [particularly children],” Green said. He maintains that AI should be used to preserve our democratic and cultural traditions, not work against them as we see with fake news and other forms of disinformation.

Green insists that this forum is for everybody. “This is a conference for regular people so we can all understand the power of AI — for good or bad. With that knowledge we can then insist on ethical AI development that comports with freedom of expression, respects the value of preserving free choice, enables universal access to information, enhances the quality of journalism, enhances cultural and linguistic diversity, and is used in a manner which respects our right to privacy, while mitigating against disinformation and consumer manipulation. However, none of this will happen in an environment of low levels of digital literacy, information inequity, and a huge divide between digital elites and ordinary citizens,” Green concluded.

You may register for today’s online forum at this address: https://forum.ai4society.ca/index.php/Special:SpecialEventRegistration?event=60.