CIGI Newsletter: July 30th, 2024 - How Authoritarian Value Systems Undermine Global AI Governance
Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI)
CIGI offers expert research and policy analysis at the intersection of technology and international governance.
How Authoritarian Value Systems Undermine Global AI Governance
Digital authoritarianism is often considered an issue limited to a few illiberal regimes, but neo-liberal AI technologies can be equally pervasive. In this policy brief, Sabhanaz Rashid Diya argues it is crucial to treat authoritarianism as a values complex that permeates both autocratic and liberal societies.
Policy solutions to mitigate the erosion of democratic norms and public trust should focus on international mechanisms central to AI governance that introduce procedural safeguards to ensure transparency and accountability through equitable multi-stakeholder processes. They should also encourage regulatory diversity tailored to sociopolitical contexts and aligned with international human rights principles.
China Teeters on the Brink of an Information Dark Age
China’s once-galloping economy has slowed, and cracks in its governance model are emerging. And, “as China faces an array of internal problems, state censorship has been ratcheted into overdrive,” Kyle Hiebert writes. “Wary of espionage, Beijing is taking ever more extreme measures to restrict information flows.”
In this commentary, a version of which first appeared in SpaceNews, Hiebert takes a look at how Beijing’s suppression of information has gotten progressively worse since the COVID-19 pandemic, arguing the ways in which “this matters not just for China’s 1.4 billion citizens, but also for the rest of us.”
Recommended
More from Sabhanaz Rashid Diya
“The government’s relentless pursuit to centralize control over digital infrastructures and services did not happen in a vacuum…For too long, fundamental rights of citizens [have been] traded for business deals, allowing the government to systemically insinuate itself into the core infrastructure that forms the Internet, giving it absolute power over its access and use.”
Read Diya’s commentary in Tech Policy Press, “How Bangladesh Fell Into An Information Blackout.”
Aaron Shull on PIPEDA
In this story filed by Canadian Press, Shull decodes the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act and comments on the Privacy Commissioner’s investigation into Loblaw customers’ complaints that they cannot delete their loyalty program accounts with the grocery chain giant.
Hector Torres on “the key to Argentina’s cage”
Following signals of a looming balance-of-payments crisis and other warning signs in recent weeks, the Argentine government responded with “more noise than substance,” Torres writes in this commentary for the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum. “Both the government and the IMF are ready for a new programme. However, they are approaching the subject from different angles.” Read the full story here.
The Paris Games Face an Unprecedented Medley of Threats
Faced with a threat landscape unprecedented in Olympic history, the French are, unsurprisingly, “turning to technology to augment security, including through the use of artificial intelligence, facial recognition software and electric signal jammers (to target drones flying over Olympic venues — reportedly up to six per day).”
Recommended by LinkedIn
In this op-ed first published by National Post, Stephanie Carvin says “a true Olympic feat will be for democratic host countries to find ways to balance the need for a secure event with the rights and privacy of all participants and spectators, well after the torch has passed on.”
Foreign Interference Is Targeting Diaspora Communities in Canada
“It touches your life. It touches your safety. It touches your security. It touches your family comfort. It touches your career. It touches your future. You don’t get sleep and you don’t know what kind of bad news you are receiving when you wake up tomorrow morning.”
In its initial report, released in May 2024, the Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference in Federal Electoral Processes and Democratic Institutions established that foreign interference did not affect the outcomes of Canadian elections in 2019 and 2021. But as this quote from one of the inquiry’s witnesses illustrates, states can go to great lengths to influence opinions and silence others. In this commentary, Marie Lamensch discusses the problem of transnational repression and how it has impacted members of diaspora communities in Canada who dare to criticize their country of origin.
Book Launch: The Politics of Platform Regulation: How Governments Shape Online Content Moderation
Plan now to join us for the launch of Robert Gorwa’s new book, The Politics of Platform Regulation: How Governments Shape Online Content Moderation, which examines the emerging domestic and international politics of online safety.
This virtual event will begin with a presentation on the book and key findings, followed by a Q&A session with attendees. CIGI Research Directors Tracey Forrest and S. Yash Kalash will facilitate.
Cybersecurity and Outer Space
CIGI’s essay series bring together scholars and experts from around the world in collaborative projects to illuminate some of today’s most pressing governance issues.
Follow Us