On December 6th and 7th 2021, the third edition of The Athens Roundtable on Artificial Intelligence and the Rule of Law convened and facilitated a participative dialogue amongst key stakeholders on international AI policy developments and salient AI standardization and benchmarking initiatives in the United States, Europe, and beyond. Held under the patronage of the President of the Hellenic Republic, H.E. Ms. Katerina Sakellaropoulou, The Roundtable highlighted the need to develop ‘smart cocktails’ of self, soft and hard regulatory mechanisms that can collectively capture AI’s upsides and minimize the downsides.
Furthermore, the participants underscored the need for solid international cooperation to ensure we defend and uphold the best from our democratic values, starting with our bedrock: the rule of law. Participants included regulatory and intergovernmental bodies (e.g.: OECD, UNESCO, GPAI, European Commission, Council of Europe), elected officials at national and international level (e.g.: European Parliament, US Congress), judicial institutions, legal practitioners, global technology corporations, human rights advocates, law societies, standards-setting bodies, and other representatives of civil society.
You can easily access the recordings here, and a list of links to publications shared by the community here.
We are delighted to have seen over 1600 participants join the line-up of 55 experts in this timely, forward-looking dialogue.
The full 2021 Athens Roundtable agenda can be previewed here.
Amongst others, highlights from the 2021 Athens Roundtable included:
the launch, under the umbrella of The Athens Roundtable, of a transatlantic Working Group on Interoperable Benchmarking of AI Systems. Participating institutions include US NIST, France’s Laboratoire National d’Essais, Greece’s NCSR Demokriots, CEN-CENELEC, and IEEE-SA.
the launch of a global online course on Artificial Intelligence and the Rule of Law aiming to build AI literacy across judicial operators and equip them with capacities to navigate complex technology such as AI
a lively discussion on the recent launch of: A Manifesto In Defence of Democracy and the Rule of Law in the Age of “Artificial Intelligence”
a thought-provoking fireside chat calling for global engagement and participation in co-shaping responsible AI