SCEWC SIDE EVENT “Global AI Regulation: What is at Stake for Cities?”

The session will discuss the interplay between global and local AI governance efforts and present the first edition of the “Atlas of Urban AI” report.

2023

November

12:00h

Location:

Smart City Expo World Congress. Fira Barcelona, Gran Via Venue, Av. Joan Carles I, 64, 08908 L’Hospitalet de Llobregat. Side Event, Level 1 (Conference Center), Zone CC1 – Room 1.3

Organized by:

CIDOB’s Global Cities Programme with the support of Barcelona City Council, the Cities Coalition for Digital Rights (CC4DR), and Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (Carnegie California)

While national and supranational governance structures wrestle with AI frameworks for development, cities and regions are legislating and planning for the ongoing and looming AI-enabled societal transformations. This SCEWC side event will discuss the interplay between global and local AI governance efforts and present the first edition of the “Atlas of Urban AI” report, issued by the Global Observatory of Urban AI.

Programme

12:00h Opening remarks

Agustí Fernández de Losada, Director and Senior Research Fellow, Global Cities Programme, CIDOB
Ian Klaus, Director, Carnegie California
Michael Donaldson, Urban Innovation Commissioner, Barcelona City Council

12:10h Roundtable “Bringing an Urban Dimension to National/Transnational AI Governance”

The European Union is ironing out the details of the upcoming EU AI Act, the world’s first comprehensive AI law. In contrast, the United States has no broad, federal AI-related law, although states like California are leading significant regulation initiatives. In the meantime, a myriad of global AI regulation efforts is unfolding, ranging from the G7 Hiroshima AI Process to the multi-stakeholder High-Level Advisory Body on AI convened by the UN Secretary-General. How may these regional and global AI governance efforts impact the adoption and regulation of AI at the subnational levels? To what extent are there formal or informal mechanisms in place to encourage a subnational involvement in the negotiation, and implementation (i.e., localization) and monitoring of national and transnational AI regulation? How can city diplomacy be leveraged as a powerful tool to ensure that these global regulations take into consideration the urban context?

Chaired by: Marta Galceran-Vercher, Research Fellow, Global Cities Programme, CIDOB

Ian Klaus, Director, Carnegie California (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace)
Michael Donaldson, Urban Innovation Commissioner, Barcelona City Council
Guillem Ramírez-Chico, Policy Advisor, Eurocities
David Graham, Chief Innovation Officer, City of Carlsbad (California)
Livia Schaeffer, Focal point AI in Cities, UN-Habitat/ UNICTAC (tbc)

13:30h Presentation of the First Edition of the “Atlas of Urban AI Report”

The “Atlas of Urban AI” is the flagship project of the Global Observatory of Urban Artificial Intelligence (GOUAI). It currently maps roughly 200 AI initiatives from more than 60 cities worldwide. Building on this research effort, the first edition of the “Atlas of Urban AI Report” seeks to provide some insights into how cities worldwide are adopting this technology and regulating its usage.

Marta Galceran-Vercher, Research Fellow, Global Cities Programme, CIDOB
Alexandra Vidal, Researcher, Global Cities Programme, CIDOB

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