Chancellor of the Government in Dubai: the Citizen Must Remain at the Heart of AI Development
As artificial intelligence and the digitalisation of public services gather momentum, governments will need to ensure that every citizen feels important and heard in the new reality, emphasised Chancellor of the Government Giedrė Balčytytė, speaking at a panel discussion on the prospects for the use of artificial intelligence at the World Governments Summit in Dubai.
In a roundtable discussion that brought together representatives of governments and international companies developing artificial intelligence, the Chancellor of the Government noted that the integration of artificial intelligence into institutional processes is inevitable. Governments will digitise all aspects of public administration and integrate with private data sources to meet the growing needs of citizens, develop and expand digital services and make better decisions.
"Governments will need to process more and more data from all areas of public life to make decisions, and this will undoubtedly require the use of artificial intelligence solutions. While the words "more data" may frighten some citizens today, advances in artificial intelligence only further highlight the advantages of democracy as a system, because only democracies are able to harness technological advances while simultaneously safeguarding the rights and freedoms of individual, without overwhelming the human beings themselves. Finally, democracies are interested in ensuring that the fruits of progress are accessible to all citizens and that they feel important and visible," said Chancellor Balčytytė.
Citizen engagement - the feedback link for democracies - will remain essential to ensure the responsible development and use of AI, the Chancellor added.
In the discussion, G. Balčytytė highlighted two aspects of a responsible relationship with artificial intelligence: process traceability and keeping the citizen at the centre of attention.
Firstly, as the volume of data becomes ever greater, the ability to trace the elements of decision-making and to explain the logic and rationale of decisions to citizens will be a practical necessity, as this is the only way to preserve the democratic nature of decision-making.
Secondly, automation and robotization will bring even more everyday convenience, but at the same time, they run the risk of making citizens feel like insignificant bolts in a giant government machine. The task for governments is to ensure that the individual and the citizen remain at the centre of the age of artificial intelligence, added Chancellor Balčytytė. According to the Chancellor of the Government, this could be even more challenging than the technological development of artificial intelligence.