Business Roundtable on Human Rights & AI

Founded in 2018 by Article One, the Business Roundtable on AI and Human Rights seeks to promote collaboration and action across the tech, business, and human rights communities. The Roundtable brings together representatives from companies at the forefront of AI development to share common challenges, potential solutions, and goals for the future.

The Roundtable convenes twice a year to address the most timely and salient issues related to AI and human rights. In the past several years, Roundtable themes have included opportunities for leadership in human rights and technology regulations, augmented and virtual reality, responsible engagement in high-risk markets, fairness and mitigating unintended bias, customer due diligence, and transparency and stakeholder engagement, among others.

OBJECTIVES

Through facilitated discussions, research, and stakeholder engagement, the Roundtable pursues three primary objectives:

  1. Facilitate cross-company learning to ensure technology companies are able to effectively surface and manage human rights risks related to the development and deployment of AI.
  2. Ensure that the human rights framework is reflected in the ethical and responsible AI debate and efforts to define standards.
  3. Support direct engagement with Human Rights and AI thought leaders to ensure Roundtable members receive timely updates from stakeholders, input into salient human rights challenges, and recommendations for effective management and broader dialogue.

 

BRIEFING PAPER ON ADVANCING HUMAN RIGHTS LEADERSHIP IN TECHNOLOGY REGULATION

In November 2023, Article One published a briefing paper titled “Advancing Human Rights Leadership in Technology Regulation” that explores the perspectives of staff and teams focused on human rights within companies navigating emerging regulation impacting the ICT sector. This briefing paper accompanied the theme of the 2023 Roundtable series on opportunities for leadership in human rights and technology regulations.

To develop this briefing paper, Article One interviewed staff from nearly 20 industry-leading companies to better understand how ICT companies are approaching the shift from voluntary human rights norms to hard laws. The paper begins with a summary of the emerging regulatory human rights context facing ICT companies. Drawing on interviews, the paper then explores key challenges and opportunities with this evolution as described by teams working on human rights and ethics within ICT companies. The paper concludes with emerging recommendations and opportunities for human rights regulation of the ICT sector.

Read the paper here.

JOINING OUR COMMUNITY

If your company is interested in learning more about the Roundtable on Human Rights and AI, please reach out to us at hello@articleoneadvisors.com.