Toward a Model Code for Digital Safety

Although standards are being published to address concerns surrounding privacy, cybersecurity and high-risk artificial intelligence (AI), stakeholders are playing catch-up with a tsunami of new, unproven digital technologies, and standards are developed after the fact.

In this policy brief, Michel Girard says that “governance should drive technological choices, not the other way around: new bottom-up approaches are therefore needed to bridge these gaps.” One such approach is a model code for digital safety, to “define a set of core values that should be embedded in new digital technologies in order to prevent harms from occurring in the first place.”

Samuel Woolley discusses some of his research team’s findings from interviews with a group of 20 political technology vendors, campaign consultants and other relevant experts as to how generative AI and large language models are being deployed during the US elections. “Among our key findings was that ‘[generative] AI’s greatest impact is in cultural and linguistic mimicry and the ability to ‘look like a tribe member’ in order to change people’s minds....Those we spoke with highlighted the use of such tools to sway minority communities and diaspora groups during increasingly contentious campaigns.”

Half the world’s population goes to the polls in 2024. This commentary is the eighth in a series from CIGI created in partnership with the Centre for the Study of Democratic Institutions at UBC to explore the intersection of technology with the most pivotal among these elections.

“It used to be that foreign actors trying to sow division and confusion in America were the prime source of fake content. Not any more. Increasingly, adversaries of the United States just need to propel the tales emerging from a deeply polarized American society.”

In this opinion, Kyle Hiebert looks at “an underappreciated aspect of misinformation: toxic untruths often go viral because partisans actively want them to,” and possible implications for the US election in the context of campaigns “unleashed as social media companies across the board have been scaling back content safeguards.”

Historically, the third plenum of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) — one of the most important cyclical events in Chinese politics — has launched major transformative undertakings. “Even though plenums formally hold important powers, they are highly choreographed events only meant to approve decisions taken beforehand by the top leadership. However, the CCP often uses these occasions to signal important policy changes. The third plenum is normally seen as the most consequential, as it traditionally centres on economic issues.”

In this commentary, Samuel Villanove and Kurtis H. Simpson provide analysis and offer key takeaways regarding the expectations, implications, themes, communications and events surrounding the third plenum of the CCP that, delayed from fall 2023, finally took place July 15–18.

“Central bank digital currencies (CBDCs)…have promised to enhance payment efficiency, reduce transaction costs and strengthen monetary policy implementation. But...the potential of offline CBDCs — digital currencies operable without constant internet connectivity — remains largely unexplored.”

In this op-ed first published in The Hindu Business Line, S. Yash Kalash says it’s imperative that policy makers turn their attention to this potential, which could be particularly transformative in countries such as India. “By leveraging existing digital frameworks, integrating offline capabilities for CBDCs and developing a hybrid system that operates both online and offline, India can ensure that the benefits of digital currencies are accessible to all its citizens. Success in this endeavour could pave the way for adoption by other countries in the Global South facing similar challenges.”

Nov. 4 and Nov. 5 – 9:30 a.m. EST (UTC–05:00) – Ottawa, Canada: The Canadian Intellectual Property Office and CIGI are pleased to host the 7th Annual IP Data & Research Conference on November 5, 2024.

This hybrid full-day conference will delve into the theme of “IP: A Driver for Economic Growth.”

A pre-conference event, Data Day, is also open for registration. This online event on Monday, November 4, gives researchers the opportunity to showcase the “how” behind their findings by sharing data and methodologies that underpin their conclusions.

Find out more and register here.