The city of Pittsburgh reinforced its commitment to the development of ethical and beneficial artificial intelligence (AI) during the United Nation’s 2nd AI for Good Global Summit in Geneva, Switzerland.
PITTSBURGH OPENS THE BENEFICIAL AI ERA AT THE 2nd AI FOR GOOD GLOBAL SUMMIT
A delegation of five Pittsburgh representatives, led by Kenny Chen from Ascender and including Mayor Bill Peduto, joined participants from more than 60 countries over the course of three days to discuss and propose actionable projects around critical topics in AI.
The AI for Good series is the leading United Nations platform for dialogue on AI, organized in partnership with XPRIZE and the Association for Computing Machinery. Building on insights from the inaugural Summit in 2017, the action-oriented 2018 Summit identified practical applications of AI and supported strategies to improve the quality and sustainability of life on our planet. The Summit will continue to formulate strategies to ensure trusted, safe and inclusive development of AI technologies and equitable access to their benefits.
“What we created one year ago here together is now becoming a global movement, the AI for Good movement.” said Houlin Zhao, Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), at the Summit. “I am pleased to tell you that this Summit has built support for more than 30 projects. [...] Working together, I am confident that we can play to our unique strengths and develop AI capabilities to spur inclusive social and economic development in all regions of the world.”
Pittsburgh’s representatives were involved in multiple facets of the Summit’s planning and execution. Dr. David Danks, Head of the Department of Philosophy at Carnegie Mellon University, is a founding member of the new TrustFactory.ai initiative for ensuring the development of trustworthy AI. Dr. Shinjini Kundu, a Research Scientist at the NIH, is leading a project on applying AI for early detection of osteoarthritis. Dr. Diane Litman, Director of the Intelligent Systems Program at the University of Pittsburgh, is contributing her expertise in natural language processing toward Smart Cities projects. Kenny Chen, Innovation Director at Ascender, has served as Pittsburgh’s liaison for AI for Good initiatives since attending the first Summit in 2017, and is working with Summit organizers to advance multiple projects, including a global Data Commons.
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Houlin Zhao- Secretary General of ITU[/caption]
Toward the conclusion of the Summit, Mayor Bill Peduto was invited to call the opening of the “Beneficial AI Era” on behalf of Pittsburgh. The city was recognized for being at the forefront of driving cutting-edge technological innovation, while also prioritizing the ethical and inclusive integration of those technologies into people’s lives. In an interview with TED Global Curator, Bruno Giussani, Mayor Peduto shared core philosophies and specific examples from Pittsburgh’s inclusive innovation, smart cities, and resilience strategies. The mayor cited university partnerships, values around inclusive innovation, and lessons learned from the city’s industrial legacy as being key assets in helping Pittsburgh navigate the Fourth Industrial Revolution the right way.