The World Economic Forum (WEF) announced January 23 an international expansion of its Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
New affiliate centers will open in India, Japan, and the United Arab Emirates, creating an international network dedicated to maximizing the benefits and minimizing the risks of emerging technology, said the WEF.
These affiliate centers will build on the work underway in San Francisco to close the gap between emerging technology and policy.
“The Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution model is to bring together business leaders, governments, start-ups, civil society, academia and international organizations to co-design and pilot innovative approaches to governance for emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and blockchain. Affiliate centers will follow this multistakeholder approach,” it said.
“We want to ensure that a technologically enriched future is safe, ethical, inclusive and sustainable for all, not just a few,” said Murat Sonmez, Head of the Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
“The Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution is an accelerator for impact and having a global network of Centers will enable us to move faster than ever,” Sonmez added.
The World Economic Forum opened the first Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution in San Francisco in March 2017. Projects at the center cover multiple areas of technological innovation, including autonomous mobility, artificial intelligence, blockchain, drones, precision medicine, and Internet of Things (IoT).
Collaboration agreements with Bahrain, Denmark, and the Inter-American Development Bank are in place, said WEF. They join 38 business and the governments of Japan and Rwanda already engaged with the center in San Francisco. Governments that join commit to piloting Fourth Industrial Revolution policy tools in their jurisdictions.
Deutsche Bank, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority are the newest partners to join.
The Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution is convening the foremost international communities of governmental, corporate, civil society and technical leaders committed to shaping the governance and application of the most important Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies in the global public interest, said WEF.
Councils announced this week include the Global Artificial Intelligence Council, Global IoT Council and Global Blockchain Council.
Councils will identify governance gaps in key emerging technologies; share learnings among leading policy-makers, practitioners and experts about innovative governance experiments around the world; provide strategic guidance to the Center’s projects; and serve as early adopters and ambassadors to pilot, refine and scale the policies and protocols developed by the Center.
Photo courtesy of WEF
