Corporate Accountability on Artificial Intelligence Shaping Investor Actions on AI Ethics
4PM GMT / 11AM EST | 5 DECEMBER | IN PERSON & ONLINE
We recently hosted a special hybrid investor seminar with the World Benchmarking Alliance (WBA) Digital Collective Impact Coalition on Tuesday 5 December.
In the rapidly evolving landscape of Artificial Intelligence (AI), the responsible and ethical use of this technology has never been more critical.
Corporations around the world are at the forefront of developing and deploying AI solutions, making their investors key stakeholders in ensuring AI is used for the benefit of humanity. The seminar was designed to foster a deep and collaborative dialogue on the responsibilities corporations have in the development and deployment of AI systems that uphold ethical standards.
The objective of the seminar was to discuss the outcomes of the Global AI Safety Summit that happened in the United Kingdom on 1-2 November and its key takeaways for investors' engagement activities.
Specific thematic focus points include:
- Risk categorisation, for example in the EU AI Act, or in the UK Government AI Summit paper and proposals for controls made for the AI Safety Summit – how universal is it?
- How can investors monitor and assess the risk exposure of both developers of AI platforms and their users. How can we monitor progress on commitments that they make, e.g., the commitment that the top AI companies made in the White House in July 2023.
- What are reasonable investor expectations? What are the key AI governance asks for companies? What policy measures should investors advocate for?
- What engagement and escalation tools and techniques investors should use?
Ethical AI is a critical area of digital inclusion where more progress is needed, as identified in the WBA’s Digital Inclusion Benchmark (DIB). Out of 200 technology companies assessed in 2022-2023, only 52 have reported a publicly available framework for ethical AI as of September 2023. The lack of voluntary adoption of ethical AI principles ultimately points to the need for multi-stakeholder collaborations to create awareness around this issue and drive systemic change.
The Collective Impact Coalition (CIC) for Digital inclusion provides a space for WBA Allies and stakeholders to take forward cross-sector, collaborative engagement action based on data and evidence provided by DIB. Please see more information about the CIC for Digital inclusion below.
AGENDA
3.45pm GMT - Arrival - teas & coffees
4.00pm GMT / 11am EST - online event begins
Welcome:
- Julia Shatikova, Ownership Lead, Sarasin & Partners
- Nikki Gwilliam-Beeharee, Investor Engagement Lead, WBA
4.05pm GMT / 11.05am EST - Fireside chat: Recognized AI expert(s) will deliver insights on the outcomes of the Global AI Summit and their importance for policy work and investor stewardship driving corporate accountability in AI safety.
- Led and moderated by Howard Covington: the Honorary Fellow of the Alan Turing Institute, and its ex-founder and Chair
- Seán Ó hÉigeartaigh, Programme Director of AI: Futures and Responsibility of the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER) at the University of Cambridge. He also helped shape the CFI AI Safety Policies assessment framework that was developed in the running to the Global AI Safety Summit.
- Dr Maurice Chiodo, Research Associate, Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER), University of Cambridge. Maurice is the author of The Cambridge University Ethics in Mathematics Project.
4.45pm GMT / 11.45am EST - Investor panel discussion: our panelists will engage in a discussion on the future focus and techniques of investor engagements with companies and policymakers.
- Amy Wilson, Head of Stewardship, Norges Bank Investment Management
- Asad Butt, Investment Stewardship Lead, HSBC Asset Management
- Nikki Gwilliam-Beeharee, Investor Engagement Lead, WBA
- Josh Sambrook-Smith, Technology Analyst and Portfolio Manager, Sarasin & Partners
- Moderator: Julia Shatikova, Ownership Lead, Sarasin & Partners
Each session will be followed by Q&A
5.30pm GMT / 12.30pm EST - Closing remarks (online event ends)
5.35pm-6.15pm - Drinks and canapés
VENUE
If you would like to join us in-person, the event will be held at Sarasin & Partners, Juxon House, 100 St Paul's Churchyard, London, EC4M 8BU. Please note that spaces are very limited, and will be given on a first-come-first-served basis; you will receive a confirmation email confirming your place at the seminar. If spaces are not available, we will send you the link to join online.
ZOOM
If you would like to join us online, the seminar will run from 4pm-5.30pm UK GMT / 11am-12.30pm EST on Zoom. Please register above and you will receive the necessary link to join.
Our co-host:
The World Benchmarking Alliance (WBA) is a non-profit organisation that assesses and ranks the world’s most influential companies’ performance on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We publish publicly available and free benchmarks that inform and empower business leaders and investors, as well as governments, civil society and other key stakeholders. WBA insights aim to serve as an accountability mechanism, incentivising companies to become successful drivers of change and deliver on the SDGs. Together with our Alliance, we are building a movement that enables transparent dialogue, and ultimately action towards a more inclusive, fair and sustainable world.
SPEAKERS
Nikki Gwilliam-Beeharee, Investor Engagement Lead, WBA
Nikki leads the World Benchmarking Alliance’s investor engagement strategy. In this role, she works with asset managers, asset owners and actors across the investment ecosystem to tackle systemic sustainability challenges. Previously in her role as Global Director of ESG Research and Engagement at Invesco, she worked closely with investment teams across asset classes to integrate ESG research into investment processes and to engage with investee companies on sustainability topics. Before Invesco, Nikki headed the Research team at Vigeo Eiris, a global ESG Rating Agency. Nikki holds an MA in Human Rights, a BA in Economics and Social Anthropology and has attained the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investments (CISI) certificate on the Introduction to Securities and Investment.
Howard Covington, the Honorary Fellow of the Alan Turing Institute, and its ex-founder and Chair
Howard is a graduate of St John’s College, Cambridge. He has a double first in theoretical physics and a distinction in post-graduate maths. His first career was in the City as an investment banker and asset manager. He became a director of SG Warburg and then European chief executive of Wasserstein Perella, a US investment bank. He co-founded New Star Asset Management and was its chief executive until it was sold to Henderson in 2009. In 2014 he cofounded Greenrock Homes, a property developer. His second career is in promoting mathematical sciences and action to reduce climate change. He has been a trustee of the Science Museum, is chair of the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences, the UK’s national maths research institute at Cambridge, and is the inaugural chair of The Alan Turing Institute. He is vice-chair of ClientEarth, an environmental law firm, and an adviser to Preventable Surprises, a think-tank. He has written on the response of the investment industry to climate change for the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times and Nature.
Howard joined a panel discussion (in June 2020) hosted by Mark Carney, the United Nations Special Envoy for Climate Action and Finance and former Governor of the Bank of England to explore the need for a whole economy transition to achieve net zero.
Seán Ó hÉigeartaigh, Programme Director of AI: Futures and Responsibility of the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER) at the University of Cambridge.
Seán is Programme Director of AI: Futures and Responsibility. As founding Executive Director, Sean has led the development of CSER from concept to physical centre, developing its research vision in collaboration with its founders, securing its funding and recruiting its research team. Sean's own research focuses on technological trajectories and impacts of artificial intelligence (AI) and other emerging technologies. He has led research programmes on these topics at the Future of Humanity Institute (Oxford) from 2011-2015, and co-developed both the Strategic AI Research Centre (Cambridge-Oxford collaboration), and the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence (Cambridge-Oxford- Imperial-Berkeley collaboration) in 2015.
Prior to Cambridge, Sean established the FHI-Amlin Collaboration on Systemic Risk – a major academic-reinsurance industry partnership on catastrophic risk modelling – as well as several other research programmes in Oxford. His research interests include: emerging technologies, global risk, science and technology policy, and horizon-scanning and foresight. He has a PhD in genomics from Trinity College Dublin.
Dr Maurice Chiodo, Research Associate, Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER), University of Cambridge
Maurice Chiodo is a mathematician, working as a Research Associate at the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, University of Cambridge. He is the co-founder and lead investigator of the Cambridge University Ethics in Mathematics Project, looking at ethical issues that arise in mathematical work, and generating material to help teach the mathematically trained how to foresee and avert such problems. Maurice lectures on Ethics in Mathematics in the faculty of mathematics at Cambridge; one of the few such courses in the world. He holds two PhDs in mathematics, which addressed computable problems in algebra, focusing on how small amounts of additional information can turn problems from being incomputable to solvable. Maurice’s current research aims to develop and promote ethical awareness among those who use mathematics in society.
Amy Wilson, Head of Stewardship, Norges Bank Investment Management
Amy leads the stewardship team at NBIM with responsibility for the fund’s overall approach to stewardship, its corporate governance expectations of portfolio companies and the development of the fund’s voting guidelines. She also engages with portfolio companies in the healthcare and consumer and telecommunications sectors. Previously, Amy led the European engagement team at EOS at Federated Hermes, a specialist stewardship team representing a global group of asset owners with combined assets of around 1.3tr USD. She was responsible for company and public policy engagement across the region and led EOS' global voting activity and policy development. She has a background in corporate affairs and sustainability at listed and private companies including, latterly, as group head of sustainability at Bupa. She holds a degree in Social and Political Sciences from the University of Cambridge.
Asad Butt, Investment Stewardship Lead, HSBC Asset Management
Asad Butt is Senior ESG Analyst at HSBC Asset Management.
Based in London he has a global and multi-asset remit for investment stewardship, focusing on engagement, voting and clients. He is also the thematic lead for Technology and Data.
Between 2016 and 2021, Asad was Vice President at ISS for corporate solutions and prior to that was an IR Specialist at Nasdaq. He started his career in the defence industry before joining Procter & Gamble and then Ford, followed by 8 years in Private Equity-backed roles.
Asad holds a degree in European Business with Technology from the University of Brighton and a Laurea di Produzione Industriale from the renowned Politecnico di Torino, Italy.
SARASIN SPEAKERS
About the Collective Impact Coalition for Digital Inclusion
The World Benchmarking Alliance (WBA) launched the Collective Impact Coalitions (CICs) in 2021, to provide a space for Allies and stakeholders to take forward cross-sector, collaborative action based on data and evidence provided by WBA benchmarks. These CICs are multi-stakeholder and timebound, bringing together diverse actors from large institutional investors to civil society, academia and business platforms to coordinate and collaborate on actions to drive positive changes on systematically important topics. These CICs are key to ensuring corporate accountability on sustainable development.
Since 2022, the Collective Impact Coalition for Digital Inclusion has been focusing on driving measurable progress on corporate commitment to ethical AI principles, especially among the digital technology companies who were found to be lacking such a commitment. In doing so, the Coalition encourages a positive change in industry business practices, enhancing business responsibility for an inclusive and trustworthy digital transformation.
Investor participants in the Digital CIC Co-led by Fidelity International and Boston Common Asset Management have already kicked off a collaborative engagement to drive adoption of ethical AI principles among the companies in their portfolio, see here for the Investor Statement on Ethical AI.
The civil society group of the Digital CIC led by Women at the Table has been involved in awareness creation events on the topic and have also published a joint statement calling on the tech companies to commit to responsible development and application of AI, guided by ethics, respect for human rights and the principle of leaving no one behind.
The Coalition published its first progress report on September 14, 2023, charting the progress of the campaign on its first anniversary, and distilling common trends in companies’ responses to engagement by investors under the campaign. The report also provides new, preliminary data on the state of the tech industry’s commitments to ethical AI. Going forward, there will be more CIC actions happening, including holding awareness creation events, online campaigns among others.