Citizen Dialogues: EuropeSay on Artificial Intelligence
From 1st October to 31st December, European citizens can bring the debate on Artificial Intelligence with them home. We give the floor to you and your friends. Register to become the Host here, and set up a dialogue meeting here and invite 4-8 of your friends and acquaintances to a talk about Artificial Intelligence and where your boundaries are in relation to the technological development and its applications. And thereby, give your input on how the technology should be handled in the future.
Report with results of EuropeSay
Participate as a Dialogue Host
Then set up your own event here
Download guide: “Set up a dialogue meeting on Artificial inteligence.pdf”
In EuropeSay, citizens are invited to discuss the future of artificial intelligence. To date, there has been very little involvement of citizens in the debate on artificial intelligence and other technological advances that affect our lives every day. We are met by artificial intelligence every time we go online. This happens when our phone suggests a route, in targeted advertisements, in the news we are presented with, in the municipality’s digital citizen service and in medical diagnostics.
Given how widespread artificial intelligence already is today and how great the potential for future application is, it is surprising that there has been so little public engagement and so few opportunities for citizens to be involved. Therefore, there is little knowledge of what the residents of the European countries actually think about artificial intelligence. We lack knowledge on how people feel about the many areas where technology is already affecting our everyday lives. And we lack knowledge about what Europeans think of the many new ways artificial intelligence possibly can affect their lives even more in the future.
Having a public dialogue about artificial intelligence is important. It is important because we must ensure that the technology is used for purposes that are beneficial to our society. And to identify the potential negative consequences, so that we can try to limit them.
The dialogue and discussions must be taken now,
while the technology is still under development.
As a dialogue host, you, along with your group, contributes to creating insight and reflection on artificial intelligence and thus provide some answers to the difficult questions about technology’s impact on society. Neither the dialogue host nor the other participants need to know anything about the subject of artificial intelligence beforehand. The answers from the dialogue meetings are collected in a report to politicians and research communities in Denmark and in the EU. The dialogue meetings are thus part of the work for a responsible and joint development of society.
How does a dialogue meeting take place?
We need many dialogue hosts throughout Denmark. As a host you should invite 4-8 people to a dialogue meeting. Participants can be your friends, family, colleagues, acquaintances from the sports club or other local associations, etc. The meeting can take place anywhere the host wants, as long everyone has access to the internet. This can be in the host’s own living room, in an office meeting room, in the local community center, etc. When all the participants are gathered, the host can start the meeting. Participants should preferably sit so they all can see each other when speaking and so they all can see the screen of the host’s computer. The host accesses the online platform and shares the link with the other participants. Now just follow the on-screen instructions. The online platform will guide participants through approx. 2.5 hours of alternating short texts, videos and questions. At the end of each round, participants are asked to answer a set of questions. During the meeting, the host participates on par with the rest of the participants. Therefore, the host has no special responsibility when the meeting is started.
Participate as a Dialogue Host
Then set up your own event here
Download guide: “Set up a dialogue meeting on Artificial inteligence.pdf”
More info
EuropeSay is coordinated by the Danish Board of Technology and is part of the large EU project Human Brain Project (HBP), under the auspice of the “Ethics and Society” efforts. We organize dialogues with citizens and stakeholders on issues and themes related to the research in HBP. Our goal is to foster involvement and engagement across Europe when setting a direction for innovation and artificial intelligence. Together with our European partners, we want to broaden the debate on the ethical, legal and societal approaches to artificial intelligence. The result of EuropeSay is a report delivered to the European Commission and included in the Human Brain Project. The Human Brain Project is one of the largest scientific projects ever funded by the European Union. Read more here.
The below article, summarizes the experts’ and stakeholders’ debates from DBT’s AI 360 | COPENHAGEN event, about the challenges of current and future use of artificial intelligence.
See article: AI 360: Steering AI for societal benefit
Read the report: “AI 360 | COPENHAGEN: Report from the workshop“.
If you have any questions about the project or the dialogue meetings, please contact:
Nicklas Bang Bådum, Project Manager, at nbb@tekno.dk eller
Marie Louise Jørgensen, Senior Project Manager, at mlj@tekno.dk
If you do not have time right now but are interested in being contacted another time, you can sign up here. Then we will contact you the next time we embark on an exciting project that we would like your perspectives on.