SATH Foundation Hosts Leadership Roundtable on Ethical AI Governance – Building Trust in AI Systems.

The SATH Foundation, a non-profit arm of Signal Alliance Technology Holding (SATH), dedicated to driving sustainability forward by harnessing the transformative potential of technology and advocating for its ethical and responsible use in society, successfully held a Leadership Roundtable on Ethical AI Governance: Building Trust in AI Systems at Capital Club Victoria Island, on Tuesday, 25th June 2024. The event brought together stakeholders from prominent organizations, like the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Microsoft, Google and other notable organizations from various sectors to engage in discussions about the future of AI ethics and governance.

In his opening remarks, the Chairman of Signal Alliance Technology Holding (SATH) Collins Onuegbu emphasized on the transformative impact of AI on everyday interactions and emphasized the importance of building trust in AI systems.

The key discussants at the event set the context of the event theme premised on the five pillars that were highlighted. These pillars were;

●    Accountability and Governance

●    AI and National Security

●    Global Equity and Access

●    Transparency

●    Fairness and Bias

While discussing on the panel, Chioma Okee-Aguguo – Southwest Zonal Officer at the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), stated the importance of cross-sector partnerships and NITDA’s commitment to ensuring that technology is accessible and deployed ethically.

Sub thematic questions extracted from the five pillars were addressed in the breakout groups, which was a high point of the event. Outcomes were presented by the group leads 

Nonye Ujam – Microsoft, Government Affairs Lead for Africa Emerging Markets, led the Transparency, Fairness and Bias break out group. During her presentation on the group discussion, she mentioned that they had discussed the importance of data classification and addressed the necessity for transparency and bias reduction in AI development, advocating for open systems from data gathering to usage and interpretation. Adewole Adene – Google’s Government Affairs and Public Policy spoke on the need to ensure data security in training AI models, learning from global best practices, and applying them through a local lens. 

Rotimi Ogunyemi – Technology Attorney at BOC Legal | Johnson & Wilner spoke about the need to institutionalize occupational roles like Chief AI officers as it is fast becoming necessary to have responsibility officers in AI

The Leadership Roundtable provided a unique platform for stakeholders to share knowledge and insights that will shape the future of AI in Nigeria. The discussions and outcomes from this event will serve as a foundation for ongoing efforts to promote ethical AI development and deployment.