In 2019, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology launched the Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing to address the global opportunities and challenges presented by the prevalence of computing and the rise of artificial intelligence. As a part of this mission, the College created the AI Policy Forum (AIPF)—its vehicle to move the global conversation about the impact of AI from principles to practical policy implementation. The Forum is an ongoing initiative focused on cultivating global, inclusive and science-based discussions on AI policy, aiming to become a conversation partner, sounding board, and matchmaker for policymakers and anyone thinking about AI policy.
 

The AIPF Wide Reach is an effort to assemble governmental officials devoted to AI policy from around the world to discuss these important issues. This specific event will focus on health data access and privacy. Advancing AI technology in healthcare is critically dependent on access to large health datasets. Through this event we seek to better understand what can be done to decrease barriers to access to high-quality health data to advance more innovative, robust and inclusive research results while being respectful of patient privacy. 

The workshop will highlight successes in data sharing and examples of the type of AI technology development we hope to accelerate, and will discuss advantages & disadvantages of approaches that policy makers are grappling with around de-identification, creation of synthetic data, and access control. From these we aim to understand how to scale successful data sharing models and identify legal, institutional and regulatory solutions and barriers to be addressed. The program is as follows:

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Organizers

• Marzyeh Ghassemi, MIT

• David Sontag, MIT

• Ziad Obermeyer, UC Berkeley

 

Participants

• International policymakers dedicated to AI policy in their respective countries

• MIT & external faculty 

• AIPF team members

 

Goals

• Bi-directional learning on AI policy, i.e., exchange of knowledge/perspectives between scientists and a variety of policymakers from around the world

• Focus on concrete AI policy challenges and specific policy tradeoffs 

• Increase engagement and continue building an “AIPF community”

• Gather input that will inform the direction of future AIPF work and events

• Establish connections and contacts between attendees for ongoing international collaboration

 

Format

• Virtual meetings (Zoom), under Chatham House Rule

• Target number of participants: ~40 policymakers + faculty + AIPF team

• Dates: January 18 and January 21, 2022

• For each Wide Reach session, a speaker will be asked to present on a topic of expertise.

• Live Q/A session participants will be tasked with proposing concrete policy approaches to the challenge being discussed. Some sessions may  include breakout groups for different areas.

• After each session, the AIPF team will prepare a written summary of the discussion and the policy proposals.