ECNL is proud to have participated at this year’s Mozilla Festival gathering more than 3000 participants from more than 82 countries. We hosted 3 sessions for a total of almost 70 participants to discuss questions on decolonization of AI, impacts of AI on environmental activism and regulatory frameworks for AI and human rights impact assessment.
Moreover, ECNL’s Program Director, Vanja Skoric, is 1 of the 5 authors of the new chapter of MozFest's Book celebrating 10 years of the Mozilla Festival community. Her contribution discusses the impact of the use of algorithmic systems on human rights.
We feel that our participation at the Mozilla Festival is crucial for ECNL to engage with different broader AI and tech communities about our work on protecting civic freedoms online and offline.
We made a case for a decolonial, inclusive and participatory approach on everything that is AI. This includes both legal and policy frameworks in design and deployment of AI as well as in preventing its (possible) negative impact on society and activists.
We brought together groups of people who do not usually meet, such as lawyers, academics from social sciences and software engineers. Our sessions provided a platform for all of us to engage in discussions about standards setting on AI and protection of civic space. We are grateful for all the new connections we made throughout the sector and all the inspiration they brought with them.
More specifically, we initiated conversations about how to include the voices of under-represented groups in discussions about research, definitions, and deployment of AI. We posed questions about the adverse effects of AI technologies on environmental activism and human rights in general, but also how AI could help mitigate and help amplify the work of civil society and activists. Last but not least, we discussed what issues should be included when we talk about AI regulation and what are possibilities and models for assessing potential AI impact on human rights and freedoms.
We will take all the discussions, learnings and new information to feed into the standard-setting debates in Europe and at the UN, as well as continue collaborating with individuals and groups that joined our sessions. Till next year in Amsterdam!