AI policy and governance - GITEX '21 highlights

Sia Partners?attended Day 1 of the?GITEX 2021?conference, highlighting key takeaways from discussions around?AI?policy-making and governance. In the past two years, significant efforts have been made in the realm of AI internationally by the public sector. Here are some main points that can be noted:

• Various countries have announced policies that include national AI strategies, action plans, guidelines and so forth. Meanwhile, as global AI governance frameworks, such as the European Commission draft AI regulation, come into shape, individual legislations seek to build systems that create a lasting impact and support cross-state initiatives.
• Significant investments have already been dedicated to foster AI, recognising the importance of incentivising enterprises through structured mechanisms but also encouraging scientific and research work that enables innovation.
• For inclusive design, bottom-up citizen engagement and enhanced population experience need to become central when building AI policies and systems.
• At the organisational level, public agencies start seeing more value in building AI-focused governance systems that are grounded in 'responsible AI' principles. It is important to have data strategy and management processes incorporating AI constituents and building awareness across practices. Here, entities need to learn how to identify, prioritise and launch applications for relevant use cases, taking into account global standards and ethical frameworks.

At Sia Partners, with a strong AI team, we support our clients at developing digital strategies, including various aspects of AI governance but also launching?projects?and developing?tools?that enable more efficient government work.