Recognising the need for cooperation at international level if we are to tap the full potential of artificial intelligence (AI) and ensure that it is of benefit to all citizens while respecting democratic values and the primacy of human beings, the founding members of the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) mean to encourage and guide responsible development of AI based on human rights, inclusion and diversity while fostering innovation and economic growth.
The Global Partnership on AI (GPAI) is an international initiative created by France and Canada along with Australia, the European Union, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, Slovenia, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.
It is also multiparty and seeks to guide responsible development and use of AI in a spirit of respect for human rights, inclusion, diversity, innovation and economic growth. In order to achieve this goal, member countries will set themselves to building bridges between theory and practice, and lend their support to cutting-edge research activities and practical implementation activities connected with AI priorities.
“The Global Partnership on AI is an expression of a highly positive transnational collective momentum that France is proud of having initiated in partnership with Canada. With its current 15 founding members, the project combines confidence in AI’s ability to help meet the great challenges that our planet is facing with a determination to guide and oversee technological uses consistent with our values,” said Cédric O, Minister of State for the Digital Sector.
In collaboration with international partners and organisations, the GPAI will bring together experts from industry, civil society, governments and the academic world, who will form working groups focusing on the following themes:
- responsible use of AI;
- data governance;
- the future of work;
- innovation and commercialisation.
In the short term, the experts involved will also focus on AI’s possible contributions as a means of responding to and overcoming the Covid-19 pandemic.
RESOURCES EQUAL TO THE ISSUES INVOLVED
The GPAI will be supported by a secretariat, hosted by the OECD in Paris, along with two Centres of Expertise, one in Montreal and the other in Paris. The collaboration with the OECD will give rise to strong synergies between the GPAI’s scientific and technical work and the OECD’s international leadership with regard to public policies on AI. It will ensure that policies on responsible use of AI are fully grounded in the realities at play.
The Centre of Expertise in Paris will be provided by the National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology (INRIA). The two Centres of Expertise will provide administrative support and support to research in respect of practical projects being carried out or assessed by the experts from various sectors and disciplines participating in the GPAI’s working groups. The Centres will also organise annual plenary sessions of the GPAI’s multiparty expert groups. Canada will host the first such session in December 2020.
The Partnership’s collective launch finalises two years of intensive joint work by French and Canadian digital diplomacies, following the call launched by the President of the French Republic and the Canadian Prime Minister in the June 2018 French-Canadian Declaration on Artificial Intelligence.
Led by Cédric O, Minister of State for the Digital Sector, with the support of the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, the negotiations involved brought together a major coalition of countries. 12 more countries have already joined Canada, France and the European Union as founding members of the initiative, and the OECD and UNESCO are also involved. The GPAI is sure to bring in other volunteer States in the near future.
