After last year’s participation was a huge success, Bonn Sustainable AI Lab is once again invited to the UN Climate Change Conference COP27 which is held every year. The goal of COPs which stands for "Conference of the Parties" is to provide a space for governments to agree steps to limit global temperature rises. The parties are the attending countries that signed up to the original UN climate agreement in 1992.

At this year's event, our lab organized two joint events with the Intouch.AI.eu of the European Commission (EC). In a panel at the UNFCCC pavilion moderated by our senior researcher Dr. Sebnem Yardimci Geyikci, we examined the relationship between artificial intelligence and the common good. In the panel, while Gry Hasselbalch, a Senior Expert on AI Ethics & Research Lead in the InTouchAI.eu, discussed the findings of the data pollution project she conducted at our institute, Gianluca Misuraca, a Team Leader and Senior Expert in Technology Diplomacy in the InTouchAI.eu, gave an overview of the role of the EU AI Act in tackling the issue of climate change. Irakli Sabekia, designer and artistic researcher, who participated in the artist in residence programme of our lab last year, provided a view on how arts and artistic practice can help us to make sense of complex ethical and political challenges in the age of artificial intelligence. Elham Youssefian, Inclusive Humanitarian Action and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Advisor from the International Disability Alliance, presented considerations for persons with disabilities factored into debates over the sustainability of AI focusing on what kind of opportunities and threats artificial intelligence offers for these groups and individuals. In the second event organised in the Danish pavilion, Dr. Yardimci Geyikci discussed the geopolitical challenges linked to the global pathway to achieve the UN SDGs and how much effort European governments are putting into promoting AI for sustainability. She also talked about the impact of sudden geopolitical events and power shifts on the progress of digital technology development in Europe to achieve the goals set by the European Green Deal. In this panel, other speakers were Martin Ulbrich from the European Commission who involved in the development and coordination of the EU AI policy, Gry Hasselbalch from the InTouchAI.eu, Henrik Skaug Sætra, Head of The Digital Society and associate professor at the Østfold University College, and Rasmus Abildgaard Kristensen, Vice President for Group Public Affairs at Danfoss.