Is Identity Politics Inevitable for the Advocacy for Rights? Commentary Left-wing identity politics must be more about foregrounding people’s common concerns and not their common characteristics, says Dr. Julia Ehrt, Executive Director at ILGA World.
“We need to be careful what we optimize our AI systems for” Transatlantic Media Fellowship How do we preserve our humanity in a world of intelligent machines? AI researcher Mark Nitzberg on the need to build AI models that are safe for humans and make explainable decisions – and why standards and oversight are key. Our fellow Ekaterina Venkina interviewed the Executive Director at the Center for Human-Compatible AI at UC Berkeley (CHAI) for RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland (RND).
Carbon Capture and Storage: A View from Asia Article Debates revolving around the high cost and economic viability of CCUS technology, as well as what critics call “a false solution”, have been around for years. Does CCUS deserve the bad name though? And is its potential worth the wait? Chermaine Lee
Will digital land records stop land grabs in Indonesia? Article Indonesia has long faced the serious issue of land grabs, driving indigenous and rural communities into conflict with plantation, forestry and infrastructure developers. Could digitising land records and national geospatial information help resolve overlapping claims to land, and promote agrarian reform in Indonesia? GRAIN
Risks from digitalisation trends in the Asia-Pacific food system Article Corporations are now using digital tools to push methods that dominate industrial food systems, such as artificial fertilisers, mechanisation, monocultures and toxic pesticides, onto remaining small-scale farming and fishing operations. Current trends in digitalisation threaten biodiversity, the wider environment and human health, yet there are few challenges to the tech industry’s hype about a ‘fourth industrial revolution’. ETC Group
Greed meets green: High-tech elites’ ecomodern ambitions for Asia Pacific Article A range of new and disruptive technologies threatens potentially irreversible damage to our planet. The ETC Group discusses technologies and the imagined futures that underpin them. ETC Group
Gearing up for the Digital Decade? Assessing the enforcement mechanisms of the EU’s platform regulation bills Background 2022 is shaping up to be a big year for European digital policymaking. The Digital Services and Digital Markets Acts as well as the Artificial Intelligence Act will reverberate beyond the EU’s borders. For the EU’s comprehensive vision for platform regulation to become reality, it will be crucial to coordinate the enforcement mechanisms of these laws. Amélie Heldt
The EU's Artificial Intelligence Act: Should some applications of AI be beyond the pale? Article The European Union’s Artificial Intelligence Act aims to regulate emerging applications of AI in accordance with “EU values”. But for the most concerning of all such potential applications, the line between regulation and prohibition can be a tricky one to draw. Alexandre Erler
False solutions prevail over real ambition at COP26 Analysis COP26 in Glasgow started with a plethora of declarations. But in the end it failed to deliver on the real and immediate action needed to avoid climate catastrophe, and to address the demand for justice and equity for those most impacted by climate harms. Erika Lennon, Sebastien Duyck, Nikki Reisch
Digital violence against women: what needs to be done now Event report Every single day, women are abused, threatened or slandered on digital social networks. Yet the operators of these platforms are doing very little to make the digital space a safer place for women. The whistleblower Frances Haugen talked to Spiegel journalist Ann-Katrin Müller and Alexandra Geese, Member of the European Parliament, about what needs to be done right now to stop violence on the net.