Veracity team attends inaugural AI standards summit
Two of our team were busy last week attending the inaugural AI Standards Hub’s Global Summit in London.
Veracity CEO Nigel Bridges and Chief Data Scientist Reuben Sodhi attended the Summit, held at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre on March 17 & 18th, at the invitation of the National Physical Laboratory, who organised the event alongside The Alan Turing Institute, BSI, and the UK Government.
The Global Summit explored the critical role of standards in AI governance, examining recent developments, key challenges, and emerging needs to foster global inclusiveness and collaboration in AI standardisation.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the Partnership on AI, were also involved in putting together the two-day event.
This brought together diverse stakeholders from across the international AI ecosystem to examine the current state of AI standardisation and explore the evolving role of standards in relation to AI governance frameworks and emerging regulation globally.
Among the speakers scheduled were Ana Alania, Research Manager, AI Governance, The Alan Turing Institute, Markus Anderljung, Director of Policy and Research, Center for the Governance of AI, Pierre Bilodeau, Vice President, Standardization Services, Standards Council of Canada, and Gabriela Ramos, Assistant Director-General for the Social and Human Sciences, UNESCO.
Baroness Maggie Jones, Minister for Future Digital Economy and Online Safety, Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, (pictured below), gave a keynote speech on the opening day focusing on the UK Government’s AI priorities, including the role of digital standards in international governance.
Attendees from around the world gathered to hear leading voices from standards development bodies, national governments, intergovernmental organisations, AI Safety Institutes, the wider AI safety research community, and civil society.
Topics included:
- The interplay between standards, regulation, and global governance frameworks for AI;
- Inclusion and equitable participation in AI standards development across stakeholder groups and geographic regions;
- Strategies for building a robust AI assurance ecosystem;
- Opportunities for cross-fertilisation between the AI safety and AI standards communities;
- Governance challenges in the context of foundation models and advanced AI systems and the role of standardisation in addressing them.
Reuben said: “We were lucky enough to be invited to the AI Standards Hub Global Summit, held at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in Westminster. This event was a gathering of influential figures and thought leaders in AI standards, where the future of AI and how we can keep safe in a time of growing uncertainty about the safety of AI.
“Some impactful talks I attended included keynotes by Maggie Jones (minister for future digital economy and online safety DSIT) and Roberto Viola (director at the European commission). I also attended panel discussions on more specific topics moderated by prominent members of the Alan Turing Institute,” he added.
He continued: “I feel very lucky to have attended this event due to the calibre of people in attendance and had several discussions that will impact how we will maintain AI standards at Veracity.”
In a message on their LinkedIn page, the AI Standards Hub posted:
“It has been a truly inspiring and insightful second day at the Global Summit. Today was marked by technical discussions and thought-provoking contributions on best practice for foundation models.”
Some key highlights from the Summit:
- Collaboration across AI ecosystem actors to develop best practices for foundation models.
- The role of standards in evaluating foundation model performance.
- Best practices and standards for ensuring foundation model safety.
- Insights from three lightening talks on standardising the frontiers of AI, challenges of evaluating AI safety and the need for documenting the post-deployment impact of foundation models.
- The need to measure and manage the environmental footprint of foundation models.
- Challenges in reaching consensus on openness, licensing, and staged release frameworks. Emerging challenges at the nexus between AI standardisation and AI assurance, in collaboration with AIUK.
For those who weren’t at the Summit, the livestreams of both days are now available.
Livestream Day One:
https://vimeo.com/event/4988154/47abb5ef4c
Livestream Day Two:
https://vimeo.com/event/4988169/9ebf150be1
