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On May 20, 2019, RIAC held a discussion of the draft Model Convention on Robotics and Artificial Intelligence. The document was presented to the expert community by the authors: Andrey Neznamov, Director of "Robopravo" Research Center, and Victor Naumov, Partner at Dentons multinational law firm. As emphasized by the developers, when writing the convention, they were led by an initiative to create a set of dynamic rules that would regulate ethical and legal aspects in the area of robotics and artificial intelligence. The authors attribute the need for a convention to the special significance of the development and application of these technologies, as well as the imperfection of their legal regulation at the national and world levels.

On May 20, 2019, RIAC held a discussion of the draft Model Convention on Robotics and Artificial Intelligence. The document was presented to the expert community by the authors: Andrey Neznamov, Director of "Robopravo" Research Center, and Victor Naumov, Partner at Dentons multinational law firm. As emphasized by the developers, when writing the convention, they were led by an initiative to create a set of dynamic rules that would regulate ethical and legal aspects in the area of robotics and artificial intelligence. The authors attribute the need for a convention to the special significance of the development and application of these technologies, as well as the imperfection of their legal regulation at the national and world levels.

You can read the draft of the Convention on Robopravo website.

The discussion participants included:

  • Andrey Krutskikh, Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation for International Cooperation on Information Security,

  • Ilya Rogachev, Director, Department of New Challenges and Threats Issues, Ministry of Foreign Affairs,

  • Oleg Eskin, Chief Designer at Concern «Granit», OJSC, Major General of the Federal Security Service of the reserve,

  • Vladimir Ovchinsky, Adviser to the Minister of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation,

  • Vladislav Shershulsky, Microsoft Technology Policy Director,

  • Albert Zulkharneev, PIR Center Director,

  • Aleksandr Kramarenko, RIAC Director for Development,

  • Roman Durnev, Deputy Head of Research Department at Russian Academy of Missile and Artillery Sciences (RARAN),

  • Maksim Karliuk, Leading Research Fellow at HSE — Skolkovo Institute for Law and Development,

  • Leonid Kovachich, Chief Editor at RIA Novosti, China expert,

  • Elena Vvedenskaya, Associate Professor of the Department of Philosophy at Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University,

  • Elena Seredkina, Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy and Law, Perm National Research Polytechnic University,

  • Yury Cherny, Head, Centre for Informatics Problems, Institute of Scientific Information for Social Sciences, Russian Academy of Sciences; Assistant Professor, Institute of Journalism, Communications and Media Education, Moscow State Pedagogical University;

  • Igor Shnurenko, artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency expert,

  • Alexander Fedotovskikh, Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, Coordinator of the Council for the development of the Northern Territories and the Arctic,

  • Nikolai Markotkin, RIAC AI Project Coordinator,

  • Anastasia Tolstukhina, RIAC Cyber Security Project Coordinator.

Ilya Rogachev, Director, Department of New Challenges and Threats Issues, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, noted that the development of such document must take the political aspect into account. The capabilities of using robotics and AI as a weapon are currently being studied. At the international level it might be difficult to agree on universal rules in areas closely connected with the national interests of states. The threat of machine uprising, though proved inconsistent, is still relevant from the point of view of the agenda.

Andrey Krutskikh, Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation for International Cooperation on Information Security, expressed the opinion that the development of standards for the legal regulation of AI and robotics will be effective under the auspices of the UN. He recalled that the Russian resolution on information security (“Developments in the field of information and telecommunications in the context of international security”) was adopted by the UN General Assembly, which indicates the appropriateness of the discussion on ICTs (information and communication technologies) on the platform of the UN.

Vladimir Ovchinsky, Adviser to the Minister of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, noted the prospects for the use of AI technologies in operational investigations, law-enforcement, and judicial activity. Vladimir Ovchinsky gave examples of the potential of artificial intelligence in this area from the experience of European, American, and Chinese security services. He also worded the definition of AI used by security services: “Artificial intelligence is a software and hardware infrastructure providing support in making productive decisions in a dynamic, unstable environment, at a set time, on the basis of knowingly incomplete, indistinct information without proper evidence base". In his opinion, it is not enough to consider the phenomenon of artificial intelligence exclusively within the framework of ICT. “One will have to reinvent the wheel,” said Vladimir Ovchinsky, emphasizing the need to consider the ethical and legal regulation of AI as a separate and extremely important aspect.

During the discussion of the Convention, the participants agreed that there is still no consensus in the expert community on terminology in the area of AI and robotics. In the opinion of the developers of the document, the concept of "robot" ("robotic mechanism", "intelligent robot") does not have and will not have a unified definition. The authors propose to determine the content of these concepts in accordance with their generally accepted meaning in a particular country and (or) in relation to a particular model of robot. In the absence of such an opportunity, Andrey Neznamov and Viktor Naumov suggest to apply international standards, in particular ISO 8373:2012 “Robots and robotic devices. Vocabulary". (Article 3).

Nevertheless, the vaguely defined terminology can be a stumbling block or an apple of discord in the course of the discussion of the Convention. Also, the difficulty arises when trying to identify AI and robotics as a separate type of technology or to refer them to already existing ones, for example, ICTs.

Elena Seredkina, Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy and Law, Perm National Research Polytechnic University, cited the experience of Germany as an example. In Germany, lawmaking process in this area views technologies as specific types and not as a set. For example, there is legal regulation on unmanned vehicles and autonomous robot nurses.

During the discussion, the participants also addressed China’s regulatory experience.

Henry Kissinger, whom Aleksandr Kramarenko, RIAC Director for Development, quoted at the opening of the discussion, finished his article for The Atlantic (How the Enlightenment Ends) with the following sentence: “This much is certain: If we do not start this effort soon, before long we shall discover that we started too late.”

The authors of the draft Model Convention plan to take the proposals made in the framework of the discussion into consideration in the revised version of the document. The updated draft of the Convention will be presented at the 2nd AI RIAC Conference, and will also be sent to MFA of Russia, international organizations, and institutions.

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