The Human Rights Dimensions of Generative AI: Guiding the Way Forward

The significant deployment of Generative AI over the last year has underscored the urgent need to examine the human rights dimensions of artificial intelligence. This panel explores the relevance of human rights frameworks to the tech sector and regulators as they consider how to govern its use in ways that maximize the opportunities while mitigating the risks.

Many have called for companies and States to do more to ensure that AI is used to enhance, not infringe upon, human rights – and to do so quickly. But practical ways forward to reign in the risks of AI without stifling innovation remain elusive. Ethical and human rights frameworks, including the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), offer important guidance, but uptake among key stakeholders remains limited.  

The UN Human Rights Office works with members of the tech sector to explore these challenges, and in particular how human rights risks associated with tech products and services can be mitigated and prevented through applying a human rights lens during the design and development stages of AI-enhanced products. The Office's B-Tech Project highlights the importance of the UNGPs' application in the tech sector, noting the adverse effects of generative AI are not just broadly negative society impacts, but are actually negative impacts on internationally protected human rights.

Keynote address: UN Human Rights High Commissioner Volker Türk

Panel Moderator: Amb. Eileen Donahoe, Special Envoy for Digital Freedom, U.S. Department of State

Panelist: Nathaniel Persily, James B. McClatchy Professor, Stanford Law School, International Policy Co-Director, Stanford Cyber Policy Center

Panelist: Raffi Krikorian, Chief Technical Officer of Engineering, Emerson Collective

Panelist: Peggy Hicks, Director of Thematic Engagement, UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR)

Panelist: Alexandria Walden, Global Head of Human Rights, Google

To review speaker biographies please follow this link.

To view a map of room 290 at the Stanford Law School follow this link. 

This event will be livestreamed. Please note your mode of attendance in the RSVP form.

Event Co-Sponsors: 

Stanford Immigration and Human Rights Law Association

Stanford Global Digital Policy Incubator

Stanford PACS Digital Civil Society Lab

Stanford Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence