BERLIN — Technology policy experts, including Paul Twomey of the Center for International Governance Innovation, SAP’s Mary Carol Madigan, MIT Professor Erik Brynjolfsson and Kirsten Martin of George Washington University, urged G20 leaders take an active role in shaping data-use and AI policy, at the 4th annual Global Solutions Summit, which is being held digitally due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The G20 is in its purview to be concerned about the ability of firms to hold intimate knowledge about us, and then use that information to target us when we are making specific decisions,” Martin said in her keynote for the Global Table: What can the G20 do to implement AI principles and to shape global data governance?

Not only does the G20 play a crucial role in shaping and coordinating data use policies, but also in AI policy, the experts argued in the corresponding panel discussion.

SAP’s Mary Carol Madigan, an expert in AI ethics, explained that a lack of international standards might lead to global divide that will benefit companies with less regulation. Currently, multiple different geographic regions of the world are experimenting with AI technology at different stages, but AI development should be approached “from the same page.”

She argued that it would be potentially dangerous to have “two versions of AI — a pre-regulatory AI and a post-regulatory,” where companies that are not in compliance with guidelines have access to the newest AI technologies.

CIGI’s Paul Twomey echoed this idea: “[Policies] need to be done in a connected way, instead of country by country.”

Anna Byhovskaya of TUAC noted that under the G20 Japanese presidency, the G20 endorsed Principles for responsible stewardship of Trustworthy AI, but urged that they are not enough: “Principles are not policies or regulations or technical protocols,” she said. “They are overarching, inspirational and deliver a moral compass, but we are running behind on the deployment.”

“The G20 will enable greater innovation and the spread of AI but the application of principles is another layer that the G20 is well-positioned to implement,” she added.

In his related keynote, MIT Professor Erik Brynjolfsson laid out the impact AI will have on the labor market: “When machines become better than humans at a task, managers are going to look at the two choices and choose the one who can do it cheaper and faster,” he said.

“The real challenge isn’t so much whether jobs will disappear, but what’s going to happen to the incomes of people as jobs are transformed.”

In the same theme, experts came together to outline actions for the G20 to educate and prepare the next generation for structural shifts in the labor markets as the global economy is transformed by technologies such as artificial intelligence.

Experts including Nobel Laureate James Heckman, the OECD’s Andreas Schleicher and CIPPEC’s Claudia Costin argued for a forward-looking curriculum focused on creativity and emotional intelligence — skills currently out of the purview of AI.

“Whatever tasks machine may take over from humans, the demands on our knowledge and skills to contribute to social life will only keep rising,” Schleicher said in his keynote for the Global Table: What can the G20 do to shape a coherent, inclusive and forward-looking educational system?

“It will be important for G20 countries to think of the design of a 21st century curricula, of which technology will be a big part of,” he added.

Heckman further expanded this idea in his keynote, arguing that in evaluating educational systems, the institutions like the G20 must go beyond cognitive abilities to ask: what are the relevant life skills?

“Studies have shown that the structure of labor markets is really favoring not just cognitive skills or non-cognitive skills, but also something deeper: complexity and the ability to respond to change,” he said.

Problem-solving skills, social and emotional abilities are also important and recognize the diversity of people and tasks required for a modern successful economy.

Preparing the labor market for the 21st century will, however, be translated into different approaches in different countries, as highlighted during the debate between PwC’s Harald Kayser and Tandem Research’s Urvashi Aneja.

Kayser argued strongly for a swift reconceptualization of digital education that provides people with skills that are needed within the labor market: “The most important question from a business perspective is how to prepare the workforce for the disruption of digitization and automation,” he said.

Aneja pointed out that developing countries first need to balance the gender gap when it comes to education for the digital age, as well as ensuring access to technology and the associated data-protection issues.

“The platformization of education will raise significant data-protection issues,” she said, adding that countries with weak institutional regulation and protection will struggle to accommodate.

Furthermore, the digitalization of education stands to create a new social divide, especially after the COVID-19 crisis, explained Markus Engels, secretary-general of the Global Solutions Initiative.

“Households with little education or money are technically ill equipped to take advantage of these global educational opportunities,” he said.

“Children whose parents are digitally well equipped will not only emerge from the crisis with their educational futures intact but may also have been able to use their time at home to gain an even greater edge.” — SG