UN resident co-ordinator calls for data revolution

ANDREW GIOANNETTI

Industries and government services will inevitably be transformed by technology, particularly artificial intelligence (AI), and using it to analyse big data will drive intelligent solutions to engage and connect citizens, the business community and the State.

Joanna Kazana, UN resident co-ordinator, said, “We want to learn to live with these new forces and learn to not merely see them as tools, but engage with them as transformative forces, holding the potential to positively shape and redefine our human experience.

“Yet again, civilisation stands at the cusp of a technological revolution that is already fundamentally altering the way we live, we work, we learn, communicate and relate to one another.”

The UN hosted its third annual Big Data Forum on Tuesday and Wednesday at the Hyatt Regency, Port of Spain, with panel discussions and presentations from representatives of government ministries, and some of the country’s most respected organisations in the fields of analytics, technology, security, finance and other industries.

Many significant actions "stemmed from this forum discussion in 2021 and 2022, and we can now celebrate as milestones in the local data-ecosystem modernisation efforts,” said Kazana.

She said this year’s edition brings together elements of the previous two, with additional technological advancements featuring prominently, particularly the increasing reliance on AI to process big data and its potential across the economy.

The UN says it has long been at “the forefront advocating for a data revolution using both traditional statistics as well as big data while ensuring data privacy, protection and ethics.”

Its Global Pulse, established in 2009, was created to assist the UN, Kazana said, in “leveraging big data and data analysis for sustainable development and humanitarian action.

“More than a decade later, innovative pulse labs exist, now globally leveraging anonymised mobile and social-media data, and other sources of information to support solutions to country development challenges.”

Kazana said the UN has also led on cyber security through initiatives and projects to align with its goal of “creating a sustainable and inclusive global community.”

She highlighted a high-level multi-stakeholder advisory body on AI, launched by the UN general secretary Antonio Guterres, in New York, last month.

“While highlighting the extraordinary advance in the capabilities and use of artificial intelligence, through chatbots, voice cloning, image generators, video apps and more, the (secretary general) also reminded us of the dangers of AI.

“This is why, at the global and national level, the UN is starting to focus on creating space for dialogue and generating input to the process of development of international norms and rules to govern state behaviour in cyberspace, whilst providing valuable resources and collaborations for capacity-building in member states.”

Technological divide and iniquity

Kazana said there are still polarities in the digital world.

“In 2002, when governments first recognised the challenge of the digital divide, one billion people had access to the Internet.”

Today some 5.3 billion people are digitally connected, “Yet the divide persists across regions, gender, income, language, and age groups,” said Kazana.

According to UN data, some 89 per cent of people in Europe are online, but only 21 per cent of women in low-income countries use the Internet.

“While digitally deliverable services now account for almost two thirds of global services trade, access is unaffordable in some parts of the world.”

Additionally, fewer than half of the countries of the world track digital skills.

“Data divides are also growing. As data (is collected) and used in digital applications, they generate huge commercial and social value.”

Kazana noted that while monthly global data traffic is forecast to grow by more than 400 per cent by 2026, activity remains concentrated among “a few global players.

“Many developing countries are at risk of becoming mere providers of raw data while having to pay for the services that their data help to produce.

“The innovation divide is even more stark.”

She expressed concern about the accumulation of wealth by a relative few in global technology industries.

Wealth generated by innovations such as autonomous intelligent systems and networks, generative artificial intelligence, virtual and mixed reality, distributed ledger technologies (such as blockchain), digital currencies and quantum technologies, she said is “highly unequal, dominated by a handful of big platforms and states,” adding that “digital technologies are accelerating the concentration of economic power in an ever-smaller group of elites and companies.”

The combined wealth of technology billionaires in 2022, she said, amounted to US$2.1 trillion, “greater than the annual gross domestic product of more than half of the Group of 20 economies.”

Behind these divides is a massive governance gap.

“New technologies are lacking even basic guardrails.

“It is harder to bring a soft toy than an AI chatbot to market today,” she said.

And, since most technology is privately developed, governments are practically always lagging behind in terms of regulations.

“As a result of decades of underinvestment in state capacities, public institutions in most countries are ill equipped to assess and respond to digital challenges.”

UN ahead of the game

Preceding the UN Summit of the Future this month, Guterres has proposed the development of a Global Digital Compact, guided by principles, objectives and actions to advance “an open, free, secure and human-centred digital future,” the UN said, “one that is anchored in universal human rights and that enables the attainment of the sustainable development goals.”

Kazana referred to a first-ever AI safety summit hosted by UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak earlier this month. In the end, a joint declaration was signed by all participating 27 countries, including major economies like the UK, China, US, India and the European Union.

“The conversation about AI and big data in the Caribbean is also very dynamic, just perhaps less visible,” said Kazana, who highlighted “outcome three” of the Multi-Country Sustainable Development Co-operation Framework for the English- and Dutch-speaking Caribbean, which stipulates that by 2026, governments and regional institutions will use relevant data and information to design and adopt laws and policies to eliminate discrimination, address structural inequalities and ensure the advancement of those at risk of being left furthest behind.

The framework was issued last year and was signed by regional heads and representatives of English-speaking and Dutch-speaking countries, including Camille Robinson-Regis, then Minister of Planning and Development. It can be downloaded from trinidadandtobago.un.org

The forum, which ended yesterday, was intended to “(embrace) the vision, principles and priorities of the (secretary general’s) Data Strategy 2020-22; the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development; and its Goal 11, to make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable,and inclusive digital transformation.”

On TT, Kazana said, “The development progress (this country) has made thus far is commendable, but the world is not standing still, and competition is fierce…Let us embark on charting a path where innovations thrive, ethics lead, and the poorest and most vulnerable members of the society benefit.”