Technology

Technology Governance.

Lighthouse examples of multistakeholder technology governance projects for Forum Industry Partners to join or help scale up through the Forum’s Fourth Industrial Revolution platforms.

The C4IR Network was launched by the World Economic Forum in March 2017 and is headquartered in San Francisco. It was created as a platform for global cooperation dedicated to developing governance policies and frameworks that accelerate the application of science and technology in the global public interest.

Based on increasing interest from governments and companies to engage in projects launched by the C4IR Network on key issues concerning emerging technologies, the Network’s footprint has rapidly expanded to include Forum-led Centres in China, India and Japan and Affiliate Centres in Colombia, Israel, Norway, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates.

Affiliate Centres are operated by host governments and work in close cooperation with the C4IR Network. The C4IR Network is expected to grow in additional strategic jurisdictions across Europe, Latin America, Africa, MENA and Asia Pacific. The activities of C4IR Affiliates are closely coupled with the C4IR Network’s projects across different thematic areas Lighthouse Projects from the C4IR are listed below.

The Alliance, for which the World Economic Forum serves as the secretariat, is the largest and most ambitious initiative to advance the responsible and ethical use of smart city technologies on a global level, working with over 200,000 cities through our platform and partners.

This initiative was launched by the Japanese Presidency of the G20 in collaboration with the Forum’s Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution Japan and will continue under the Saudi G20 Presidency in collaboration with C4IR Saudi Arabia. Governments can nominate cities to participate in the alliance and serve as pilot sites for new policies and protocols, while leading companies are invited to join the co-design and piloting communities.

This project is part of the Forum’s Platform for Shaping the Future of Technology Governance: Internet of Things, Robotics and Smart Cities.

Companies can adopt a practical framework and toolkit developed by the World Economic Forum with over 100 cross-sector stakeholders and piloted by more than 12 companies that help board members be responsible stewards of their companies’ deployment of AI by more deeply understanding this transformational technology, asking the right questions, balancing trade-offs, meeting the needs of diverse stakeholders and formulating innovative governance approaches.

This project is part of the Forum’s Platform for Shaping the Future of Technology Governance: Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.

Governments can adopt practical standards for effective and responsible procurement and deployment of AI, which can transform government services while using market power to set standards for industry. The standards, accompanied by actionable implementation guidance, were co-designed by the Forum with over 100 cross-sector stakeholders, initially piloted by the UK government, and subsequently piloted with governments across the Middle East, Latin America, Europe, and Asia.

This project is part of the Forum’s Platform for Shaping the Future of Technology Governance: Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.

Companies and governments can sign on to support and implement the Blockchain Users Bill of Rights, designed by the Forum’s Global Blockchain Council of the world’s top leaders and experts in this disruptive technology. These core principles enable both developers and deployers to protect consumers in the early stages of this nascent technology and avoid pitfalls of previous technological revolutions.

This project is part of the Forum’s Platform for Shaping the Future of Technology Governance: Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology

Note – the below is project 103/ was called Ethical Use of Technology

As companies are increasingly called on to take responsibility for the impacts of their products on society, particularly amid the current “techlash”, the Forum has convened a community of chief ethics officers and other “ethics executives” within companies to design actionable frameworks for how to integrate ethics into decisions about how their products are designed and to whom they should be sold. Leaders are invited to join this community to learn what is working from their peers and to adopt these practical frameworks for their own companies.

This project is part of the Forum’s Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution Global Network.

Companies that are designing or deploying facial recognition technology can join industry leaders in adopting the Forum’s set of principles that define what qualifies as responsible use of this transformative technology, as well as an assessment framework that operationalizes these principles. Governments can adopt the Forum’s practical guidelines for common-sense regulations in this space, which balance innovation and social benefit with protecting individual rights.

This project is part of the Forum’s Platform for Shaping the Future of Technology Governance: Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Bringing transparency and efficiency to complex supply chains is one of the most promising use cases for blockchain technology, but current deployments are fragmented and siloed. Companies and governments can adopt the Forum’s framework to ensure the interoperable, responsible and inclusive deployment of blockchains for supply chains, which has been piloted in multiple industries, geographies, and use cases – including with partners representing 85% of the world’s cocoa supply chain, Hitachi executives, 60 transport ministers from across the world, and with 30+ organizations from the United Arab Emirates blockchain ecosystem through a new Blockchain Governance Accelerator in collaboration with C4IR United Arab Emirates.

This project is part of the Forum’s Platform for Shaping the Future of Technology Governance: Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology.

As critical engines of the global economy, central banks must be particularly cautious in experimenting with blockchain despite adoption in the broader financial services industry. Central banks evaluating this potentially transformative technology can join the Forum’s confidential community of more than 45 central banks and international organizations to share experiences about blockchain experimentation. They can adopt a new user-friendly, risk-aware and comprehensive toolkit created by this community that helps policy-makers evaluate whether and how to responsibly launch central bank digital currencies.

This project is part of the Forum’s Platform for Shaping the Future of Technology Governance: Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology.

Across industries, organizations are realizing that the full value of blockchain technology is unlocked through cross-company collaboration – but the models for collaboration can be particularly challenging to navigate given the technology’s decentralized nature. Companies that are looking to lead responsible transformation of their industries can use the Forum’s platform to launch a fair, neutral and robust industry consortia focused on blockchain, utilizing the Forum’s principles for governance of consortia and joint blockchain platforms. A recently launched blockchain consortia for seven leading mining and metal companies being facilitated by the Forum was incubated at the Annual Meeting 2019.

This project is part of the Forum’s Platform for Shaping the Future of Technology Governance: Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology.

When collecting personal data, many companies require users to check a box for Terms of Service that few users read or understand. Companies looking to champion trust with their customers can adopt the Forum’s new approaches to obtaining user consent that empowers the user to have more control over what data is being collected, how it is used and by whom – particularly as data is increasingly being collected beyond the screen and all around us.

This project is part of the Forum’s Platform for Shaping the Future of Technology Governance: Data Policy.

Governments looking to bring the benefits of the Fourth Industrial Revolution to small and medium-sized enterprises can implement the Forum’s new policy tools to facilitate the adoption of industrial IoT solutions in the manufacturing sector. The tools are being piloted by the Brazilian Ministry of Economy and the State of São Paulo with more than 130 SMEs in the São Paulo region with an additional 2,000 Brazilian companies expected to join by 2021. These policy tools are ready for adoption in other jurisdictions and sectors, with further pilots planned for water management and medical devices.

This project is part of the Forum’s Platform for Shaping the Future of Technology Governance: Internet of Things, Robotics and Smart Cities.

Industrial internet of things (IIoT) will be one of the largest drivers of economic growth in the coming decade. Absent adequate security measures, it could also unleash catastrophic harm. In 2017, more than 24 companies, governments, organizations and universities collaborated with C4IR to co-design the Industrial IoT (IIoT) Safety and Security Protocol.

This first-of-its-kind policy framework, published in April 2018, generates an understanding of how risk and insurance can facilitate the improvement of IIoT security design, implementation and maintenance practices. It also puts forth a universal set of risk management best practices that should be incorporated in all IIoT deployments.

The framework is being piloted in the aviation sector, with more than 25 stakeholders including regulators, prominent airports and airlines, leading ICT and cybersecurity companies, large insurance providers and civil society associations aligning to develop a method to quantify risk exposure against a defined baseline of common standard of care. This project will result in a policy tool that enables diverse industries deploying industrial IoT devices and systems to benchmark themselves against a “common duty of care” with regard to cyber resilience controls and best practices.

Companies from other industries are invited to pilot this framework to ensure the safe deployment of IIOT devices and systems in their sectors.

This project is part of the Forum’s Platform for Shaping the Future of Technology Governance: Internet of Things, Robotics, and Smart Cities and Platform for Shaping the Future of Cybersecurity and Digital Trust.

Data related the state of our health is being collected everywhere – from hospital computer systems to our phones – but barriers to accessing and applying it mean it is rarely used to its full potential to make us healthier. This project, driven by C4IR Japan, aims to develop innovative ways to use data to detect, prevent and treat dementia and other ageing-related conditions, which are expected to triple by 2050, while also addressing broader issues of healthcare data governance along the way. This project is introducing a new paradigm for patient consent – Authorized Public Purpose Access – to ensure that governments can responsibly leverage patient data to benefit society while protecting individual rights. Governments looking to responsibly unlock the value of their health data are invited to adopt this innovative framework.

This project is part of the Forum’s Platform for Shaping the Future of Technology Governance: Data Policy.

Consumers are more connected than ever, owning an average of four IoT devices. These devices provide new conveniences and quality of life improvements, but may also bring about new risks. Recent studies show that almost half of smart home device owners regularly worry about the privacy or security of their devices, and that nearly one-third of consumers do not own or intend to purchase a connected device because of lack of trust. Improving buyer confidence is needed to open these wary segments of the market to consumer IoT companies, while greater regulatory clarity will also help those companies invest and grow the market.

Join leaders from the top manufacturers and deployers of these connected devices, together with government and civil society, who are partnering with the Forum to develop a common standard to inform, educate and build trust among consumers on topics such as privacy and security.

This project is part of the Forum’s Platform for Shaping the Future of Technology Governance: Internet of Things, Robotics, and Smart Cities.

AI is increasingly embedded in children’s toys, tools, and classrooms, creating sophisticated new approached to education and child development tailored to the specific needs of each user. However, special precautions must be taken to protect society’s most vulnerable demographic. Issues of privacy are compounded by questions about the impact of AI-enabled toys on cognitive development.

Interested partners are invited to join the Forum’s community of companies that make AI-enabled products and services for children and youth; governments and advocacy organizations committed to protecting children’s rights; and researchers and academics studying the impact of AI on children – all working together to design and implement standards, norms and best practices for the protection of children in the age of AI.

In partnership with UNICEF and numerous governments, this project is developing a set of policy guidelines for child protection at the country level. The draft guidelines for child protection were published in September 2019 with UNICEF.

This project is part of the Forum’s Platform for Shaping the Future of Technology Governance: Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning