On 10 July 2024, UNU will host “Multilateral Governance for the Digital Economy and Artificial Intelligence”, a BIG IDEAS Dialogue with Dr. Shiro Armstrong, Professor of Economics and Director of International Partnerships at the Crawford School of Public Policy in the College of Asia and the Pacific at The Australian National University. This hybrid event (online and in-person) will start at 18:30 on Zoom and in the 5F Committee Room 2 at UNU Headquarters in Tokyo.
The digital economy and artificial intelligence (AI) play an increasingly pivotal role in economic and societal value creation across the globe, yet they lack multilateral rules. The current fragmented state of the global digital economy is putting a damper on the growth potential of digital and AI systems’ productivity, and exacerbating their emerging risk.
Prof. Shiro Armstrong will join UNU Senior Vice-Rector Sawako Shirahase to explore the building blocks of new approaches to multilateral governance that can more evenly distribute the benefits of digital and AI systems while collectively managing their risks. Prof. Armstrong will discuss the economic logic of value creation in the digital economy and the policy dilemmas that this logic implies. Additionally, he will explore major economic and political challenges that impede efforts to advance multilateral governance. This includes concentration of power, protectionism, and exclusion in digital and AI systems to evaluate the potential of Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) — an increasingly-recognized framework for promoting publicly guaranteed digital ecosystems — to serve as a foundation for more equitable, interoperable, and inclusive global digital and AI governance. This event will identify near-term opportunities for policymakers to align on shared multilateral principles while respecting all countries' domestic policy space.
To attend this event in person at UNU Headquarters in Tokyo, register here: https://go.unu.edu/GWJ9W
To attend this event online via Zoom webinar, register here: https://go.unu.edu/mTv2a
Online participants will receive an email on the day of the event with a link to join the Zoom webinar.
About the speaker
Dr. Shiro Armstrong is a Professor of Economics and Director of International Partnerships at the Crawford School of Public Policy in the College of Asia and the Pacific at The Australian National University. He is Director of the Australia-Japan Research Centre, Editor of the East Asia Forum, and Director of the East Asian Bureau of Economic Research. He is also a Visiting Professor at Keio University, Research Associate at the Center on Japanese Economy and Business at Columbia Business School, Visiting Lecturer at the University of Tokyo and Non-resident Fellow at the Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry, Japan.
