Round Table on the governance of Digital Futures – a pacing problem?
Channel: ITAS | Institute for Technology Assessment
Date: 12/10/2022

The basic idea of this session was to discuss challenges and expectations related to the governance of digitalization and artificial intelligence (AI). , with a particular focus on the timing of AI governance. 

Given the complexity of AI governance, this round table session at the 5th European Technology Assessment Conference in Karlsruhe aimed to address the issue in a broader context and relate it to fundamental challenges for TA and the governance of technologies. The questions of interest by no means claim to be new – yet they are highly relevant for TA in the context of AI. The point of departure is the so-called “pacing problem,” which refers to the notion that technological innovation is increasingly outpacing the ability of laws and regulations to keep up. In a similar vein, the well-known Collingridge dilemma addresses the issue of timing and the associated challenges for societal “control” of technological development. It states that there is a lack of information in early stages of technology development (information problem); in later stages, when the technology is established, control or change is difficult due to lock-ins and path-dependencies (power problem).

In this session, the participants drew on these ideas to discuss challenges and options for the governance of AI, adressing the following topics: 

Are we drivers of development or driven by it?
2030 – Do we still have a pacing problem?
What needs to be done by the TA-community?

Under the heading “Digital Future(s): TA in and for a Changing World” ITAS invited to the 5th European Technology Assessment Conference in Karlsruhe, Germany.

The central focus of the conference, organized within the globalTA network, was on existing and potential impacts of digital technologies within societies and socio-technical systems (such as power grids, medical treatments, mobility, logistics and production) as well as on individuals.

List of speakers
Lars Adolph, Director and Professor at the Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA) in Dortmund
Matthias Finger, Professor Emeritus at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale in Lausanne, Switzerland (EPFL)
Armin Grunwald, Professor of Philosophy and Ethics of Technology at KIT and Head of the Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis (ITAS)
Sonja Thiel, Historian, Philosopher, and Museologist and Head of AI development at the Badisches Landesmuseum

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