IEEE and the MIT Media Lab Launch Global Council on Extended Intelligence

PISCATAWAY, NJ, 22 June 2018 – IEEE, the world’s largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for humanity, the IEEE Standards Association (IEEE SA), and the MIT Media Lab today announced the launch of the global Council on Extended Intelligence (CXI). The goals of CXI are to build a new narrative for autonomous and intelligent technologies inspired by principles of systems dynamics and design. This includes promoting the ideals of responsible participant design, of digital data agency and better metrics of economic prosperity that prioritize people and the planet over profit and productivity.

“Many people involved in technology development assume that technological progress is always positively framed and outcomes are value-neutral. We believe this presumption often makes technology part of the problem rather than the solution,” said Don Wright, president of the IEEE Standards Association (IEEE SA). “Society must encourage individuals, businesses and communities involved in the development of technology to collectively assume responsibility for what we build and to proactively ensure that the systems we design are truly beneficial for humanity.”

To proliferate the ideals of responsible participant design, data agency and metrics of economic wellbeing prioritizing people and the planet over exponential growth, CXI has created the following projects:

• Extended Intelligence – Awareness and Action – This project will focus on creating an introduction to Extended Intelligence and Participatory Design. To avoid reductionism, these articles, webinars and curriculum will help organizations build a new narrative for autonomous and intelligent technologies inspired by principles of systems dynamics and design.
• Digital Identity – Democracy by Design – This project will create a Data Policy template for governments and organizations to utilize in helping individuals and society reclaim their digital identity in the algorithmic age. Realizing the difficulties with creating a “one-size-fits-all” global solution, CXI will focus on providing general best practices for evolved identity recommendations (Personal Identification Management Systems, Blockchain, etc.) that can be adapted based on country-specific and other contextual considerations.
• Enlightened Indicators – Measuring What’s Good Versus Simply Growth – This project will create a Wellbeing Indicator template, a metric governments and organizations can utilize in genuinely measuring prosperity in terms of benefit to all. CXI will focus on providing general recommendations and best practices based on established indicators (such as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Better Life Index and United Nations Sustainable Development Goals) for their template.

“If we’re going to integrate powerful algorithms and machines into our societies, we have to think about how systems adapt, evolve, and proceed with respect for and input from the people who may be affected by them,” said Joi Ito, director of the MIT Media Lab. “I am excited that IEEE is taking a leadership position in advancing ethically aligned autonomous and intelligent systems and providing an open and inclusive process which produces a lot of great output.”

About 50 individual members are joining CXI. The full list of CXI’s members, along with their vision statement and project descriptions, is available at Global CXI.

“CXI will work to transform reductionist thinking regarding autonomous and intelligent systems that value functionality and speed to market over the need to prioritize societal, cultural and environmental considerations equally,” said John C. Havens, CXI’s executive director. “All systems must be responsibly created so society can redefine innovation in the algorithmic age by the tangible social and ethical improvements these technologies can provide.”

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