MANILA, Philippines – Rappler CEO and Nobel Peace Prize 2021 Laureate Maria Ressa will be one of the two co-chairs of the United Nations’ Independent International Scientific Panel on Artificial Intelligence, alongside renowned computer scientist and Canadian AI pioneer Yoshua Bengio.

The panel, the first global scientific body dedicated entirely to artificial intelligence, announced its roster of 40 members earlier in February.

The panel itself pulls from various different backgrounds, including academe, the private sector, civil society, government/international organization, and technical community, and members have backgrounds in core technical AI expertise; applied AI, safety and infrastructure experience; and AI policy, ethics and impact.

Bengio is a professor at Université de Montréal, co-president of LawZero, and founder of Mila. A recipient of the 2018 Turing Award, Bengio is also the world’s most-cited computer scientist.

‘In a race against time’

UN Secretary-General António Guterres, in his initial remarks on the first virtual meeting of the panel, said that like AI itself, “this Panel is in a race against time.”

“In the span of a few months, you will establish your working methods; set priorities, form focused working groups and deliver a substantive, evidence-based assessment.  This work will inform the first annual Global Dialogue on AI Governance — co-chaired by Egriselda López of El Salvador and Rein Tammsaar of Estonia, who will join us today. Your first report will be a reference point for that Dialogue — and it will set the standard for what follows.”

Guterres added, “AI is advancing at lightning speed — reshaping economies and societies. And for those who think we are moving too fast, I would only say that never in the future will we move as slow as we are moving now. We are indeed in a high level of acceleration.” – Rappler.com