Roundtable – February 1, 2023

An international roundtable on the Montreal Declaration on Responsible AI in the presence of award-winning playwright Dominique Leclerc

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On February 1, 2023, Algora Lab, an interdisciplinary laboratory attached to the Université de Montréal (UdeM) and Mila that develops a deliberative ethics of artificial intelligence (AI) and digital innovation, organised a roundtable in Montreal to review the creation of the Montreal Declaration on Responsible AI and its implementation since 2018. The event brought together members of the scientific committee behind the Declaration as well as a delegation of Mexican researchers interested in applying the Declaration and its principles in the state of Jalisco.

Yoshua Bengio (Scientific Director of Mila), Marc-Antoine Dilhac (Director of Algora Lab), Catherine Régis (responsible for the renewal of the Declaration at UdeM), Christophe Abrassart (Co-Director of the Lab Ville Prospective at UdeM) and Manuel Morales (Programme Director of Fin-ML), from the Quebec side; and Juan Roberto Hernández (coordinator of the fAIr LACinitiative), Luis Enrique Vázquez (legal coordinator of the fAIr LAC ethical risk committee) and Gilberto Ochoa (researcher at the AI Hub of Tec de Monterrey), from the Mexican side, took part in this meeting. The researchers discussed the objectives of the Declaration and the practices to be implemented in order to concretely apply the principles contained therein. They also discussed the future evolution of this instrument and the paramount importance of guiding the development and deployment of AI.

Dominique Leclerc, playwright and co-director of the Posthumains company, was present to film the discussions and conduct individual interviews with some of the participants.

Her work is part of the research she is doing to create a play on responsible AI against the backdrop of the Montreal Declaration. This project, the result of a unique collaboration between UdeM, the Duceppe Theatre and Posthumains, aims to raise public awareness and stimulate reflection on the governance of AI – through the prism of theatre.

Posthumains, a duo of artists Patrice Charbonneau-Brunelle and Dominique Leclerc, is interested in the impact of the development of new technologies on the living. Dominique Leclerc herself participated, as a citizen, in the co-construction activities and the launch of the Declaration in 2018. Through this play project, the authors “seek how the encounter allowed by the living arts can stir up, complete and democratise the reflection on ethics in AI.”