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International Panel on the Information Environment

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International Panel on the Information Environment
AbbreviationIPIE
EstablishedDecember 2023 (1 year ago)
TypesScientific body, non-governmental organization
HeadquartersZurich, Switzerland
Websitewww.ipie.info 
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The International Panel on the Information Environment (IPIE) is an international consortium of over 250 experts[1] from 55 countries dedicated to providing actionable scientific knowledge on threats to the global information environment. The organization has been compared with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, but also CERN and the IAEA, because it uses the model of scientific panels and neutral assessments to identify points of consensus or gaps in knowledge.[2] The IPIE was legally registered as a charitable entity in the Canton of Zurich, Switzerland in 2023.[3]

Panels

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The first panel was a Scientific Panel on Global Standards on AI Auditing, chaired by Professor Wendy Chun and Professor Alondra Nelson. At the UN Summit of the Future in September 2024 the IPIE announced the formation of a Scientific Panel on Information Integrity about Climate Science, a Scientific Panel on Child Protection and Social Media, and a Scientific Panel on AI and Peacebuilding. [4][5]

Origins

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The concept was proposed in 2021 during the first Nobel Prize Summit organized by the US National Academy of Sciences and the Nobel Foundation, involving Dr. Sheldon Himelfarb, then head of PeaceTech Lab,[6] and Professor Philip N Howard, a Professor at Oxford University and then Director of the Oxford Internet Institute, [7] In September 2022 thirty scientists met at Oxford University to develop a mission statement, organizational structure, and process for developing scientific consensus. This chartering group included researchers from the social, behavioral and computer sciences. Over time, similar calls to create this independent body have come from public science agencies, civil society, philanthropy, and the technology firms themselves. Some proposals focussed exclusively on AI, others on a host of technology-related harms, but there has been strong consensus that the body would need financial independence from technology firms and governments, wouldn't be credibly managed by a steering committee of nation states, and wouldn't function effectively within the UN system.[8] A larger group of scientists convened in Costa Rica in February 2023 to continue planning.

In May 2023 the IPIE was publicly launched during the Nobel Prize Summit in Washington DC.[9] The Panel's inaugural announcement said,

Algorithmic bias, manipulation and misinformation has become a global and existential threat that exacerbates existing social problems, degrades public life, cripples humanitarian initiatives and prevents progress on other serious threats.

A New York Times report on the Panel's launch described its initial plans to "issue regular reports, not fact-checking individual falsehoods but rather looking for deeper forces behind the spread of disinformation as a way to guide government policy."[10]

Management

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The CEO of IPIE is Dr. Philip N. Howard,[11] who is also the director of Oxford University's Programme on Democracy and Technology.[12] Jenny Woods is the Executive Director and COO of the IPIE, which has a Secretariat based out of Zuirch.[13] The organization is governed by a small Board of Trustees, a system of permanent methodology, ethics and membership committees, and limited-term scientific panels on particular topics. Dr. Sheldon Himelfarb is co-founder and chair of the IPIE Board of Trustees.[14]

The organization is neutral and nonpartisan, but does seek better access to data from technology companies so as to better appraise the impact of new technologies like AI on public life.[15]

References

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Notes

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  1. ^ IPIE (2024a).
  2. ^ Myers (2023). https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/24/business/researchers-study-misinformation.html Archived 2024-03-05 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ Myers (2023).
  4. ^ United Nations (2024). "Summit of the Future". United Nations. Retrieved 2024-08-02.
  5. ^ IPIE (2024a)
  6. ^ Lawton (2021). See also Himelfarb et al. (2021).
  7. ^ National Academies (2023).
  8. ^ Harris (2024). Philanthropy's urgent opportunity to create the Interim International AI Institution (IIAII). Routledge. doi:10.17181/ESU2020. ISBN 9781003468615.
  9. ^ Snyder (2023).
  10. ^ Myers (2023). https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/24/business/researchers-study-misinformation.html Archived 2024-03-05 at the Wayback Machine
  11. ^ IPIE (2024b).
  12. ^ University of Oxford (2024).
  13. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2024-03-28. Retrieved 2024-03-28.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  14. ^ IPIE (2024c).
  15. ^ "Fighting disinformation gets harder, just when it matters most". The Economist. ISSN 0013-0613. Retrieved 2024-08-27.
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