From June 5 to 9, 2023, Mila – Quebec AI Institute, in collaboration with University of Montreal, will host the very first Summer School dedicated to studying the intersection of AI and human rights. Experts from diverse fields will meet to discuss pressing issues through a human rights perspective, including responsible use of AI systems, governance and legal aspects in front of 40 participants from around the world.
The rapid pace of AI development prompted governments in Europe and Canada to bring forward legislation to govern AI, and expertise in AI and human rights have a strong potential to shape the technology’s future.
Mila’s AI for Humanity team, in charge of promoting a socially responsible and beneficial development of artificial intelligence, designed in collaboration with University of Montreal an extensive program of conferences and workshops led by professor Catherine Régis to provide participants with a human rights-oriented approach to AI issues.
It seeks to elaborate a common method of tackling AI issues under the lens of human rights and to bring together worldwide experts from diverse backgrounds who will then adapt this new approach to their specific context.
Participants will be provided with cutting-edge research in order to gain theoretical and hands-on knowledge on a broad range of technical, legal, ethical, political, social and philosophical aspects of AI and human rights.
Attendees include master and doctoral students, early-career researchers, professionals from the public, private or non-profit sectors from 23 countries across all continents.
Experts include Gabriela Ramos, Assistant Director General for the Social and Human Sciences of Unesco, Nicolas Miailhe, co-founder of The Future Society (TFS), Shingai Manjengwa, Director, Technical Education, Vector Institute and CEO of Fireside Analytics Inc., Karine Gentelet, Professor at the Social Science Department at the Université du Québec en Outaouais, AJung Moon, Director of the McGill Responsible Autonomy & Intelligent System Ethics (RAISE) lab, McGill University, Virginia Dignum, Professor of Responsible AI at Umeå University, Sweden and director of WASP-HS, Maria Axente, Responsible AI & AI for Good Lead, PwC UK, Nathalie Smuha, Legal scholar and philosopher at the KU Leuven Faculty of Law, Mark Shaan, Senior Assistant Deputy Minister for Strategy & Innovation Policy at the Department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED), Shalaleh Rismani, Ph.D. candidate McGill University and Mila, Bernard Duhaime, Professor at Université du Québec à Montréal.
The morning sessions will be dedicated to educating the participants on topics such as operationalizing principles of the Montreal declaration for responsible AI, actionable tools to govern AI at multiple levels, integrating ethical reasoning throughout the AI lifecycle, and legal frameworks to adapt them to their own reality.
In the afternoon, participants will work through case studies to apply what they learned in real-world scenarios like automating social media content moderation, AI-Driven decision support to university admissions, facial recognition and gunshot detection with AI, employee AI-powered monitoring, AI-Powered robots for elderly care, and AI-generated images.
They will also attend workshops to develop their skills on collaborating with interdisciplinary teams, working with data and developing personal leadership.
“We are proud to host the very first summer school dedicated to AI and human rights, a collaborative initiative between Mila and the University of Montreal. I’m looking forward to seeing diverse experts from all around the world share their multidisciplinary knowledge and perspectives on these crucial issues at such a pivotal time. This is a new high level learning experience which we hope will become a yearly event. It's also a great addition to Mila's Responsible AI training offer and we hope to inspire other initiatives to shape a better technological future for us all.” - Catherine Régis, Full Professor at University of Montreal, Associate Academic Member at Mila and co-chair of the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) working group on responsible AI
