Santander-CIDOB Future Leaders Forum “The future of the digital global order: Algorithmic governance and artificial intelligence”

The Santander–CIDOB Future Leaders Forum is a collaboration programme between Banco Santander and CIDOB that aims to identify and promote dialogue between future global leaders from different social and economic fields that will shape the international agenda. 

The programme consists of three complementary activities: the Santander–CIDOB 35 under 35 list; the Future Leaders Forum; and an online space where the talented youngsters nominated in the Santander-CIDOB 35 under 35 list will be able to share ideas and opinions through videos that will be made available online. 

Following on from the first edition “Global Techno-politics: Technology, the next global order and the role of the EU” in November 2020, this year’s topic is “The future of the digital global order: Algorithmic governance and artificial intelligence”. 

Algorithms are facilitators. To make public policy decisions more efficient they should, in principle, be neutral. However, their design and programming can reproduce existing biases in our societies, negatively impacting some groups and amplifying structural inequalities such as those based on gender, race or socioeconomic circumstances. Most algorithms are neither auditable nor transparent and they are not covered by intellectual property laws, making guaranteeing public administration accountability problematic. 

Another issue is the existence of conflict dynamics between global powers over the governance of algorithms and artificial intelligence, prompting talk of a cold cyberwar. The visions and uses of AI employed by the European Union, United States and China vary, and there is competition to be seen as a model to face these new challenges. The capacity to promote cooperation dynamics that allow a minimum level of global governance will be fundamental to creating a safer digital world. 

The second edition of the Santander–CIDOB Future Leaders Forum will analyse the following questions. If the digitalization process leads to the delegation of certain decisions to AI, can such decisions be trusted? Can AI be governed so as to correct the biases algorithms generate? How can neutrality be assured? Can global agreements be reached to achieve ethical AI development? What role are great powers playing in the global governance of artificial intelligence? 

The members of the Santander–CIDOB 35 under 35 list will participate in the Future Leaders Forum. The list acknowledges the work of 35 young people (35 years old or younger) with the potential to become future leaders in their different areas of expertise and activity (public decision-makers, private sector and media professionals, activists, intellectuals and academics). 

Conceived as a space for dialogue between future leaders, the Santander–CIDOB Future Leaders Forum will gather the 35 members of the list in order to debate, exchange ideas and discuss this year’s topic with other social, economic and political actors from Spain and Europe. During the Forum, the members of the Santander–CIDOB 35 under 35 list will be made public. 

The 2021 edition of the Santander–CIDOB Future Leaders Forum will be held online. The event will include a public part, at which the Santander–CIDOB 35 under 35 will be presented, followed by an initial contribution on this year’s topic. The event will continue with the private part of the forum – a networking space for the members of the 1^st and 2^nd editions of the list. 

>> The event will be streamed live on CIDOB’s YouTube channel