Berlin Ministerial Conference; FoRB and AI

The Ministerial in Berlin, which was hosted by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and Commissioner of FoRB, Frank Schwabe, has shown the significant role of AI for the promotion of FoRB as well as AI’s threat to FoRB.

To deal with AI adequately, it is important to realize that neither AI development nor applications exist out of cultural, religious, or societal contexts. And for the time being, AI development and applications are designed and managed by humans. Therefore, AI is a social mechanism which should be developed and designed in a people-centered way.

With this understanding, AI can become an instrument to promote FoRB. We should seize the opportunity to help develop it in this direction. A human rights-based approach is the fundamental prerequisite to working on AI for the promotion of FoRB, not broad alternative concepts such as ethical or responsible engagement. Only by a human rights-based approach we will be able to precisely work on strengthening FoRB in its interdependence with other human rights.

Social media is a good example to underline the relevance of this. Social media became an important tool for manifesting and practicing FoRB and connecting believers or fostering dialogue, but at the same time, media is also heavily misused for spreading hate speech, allegations of blasphemy, and the incitement of mob violence.

The discussions at the Ministerial showed very clearly that there is a need for a deeper understanding:

  • within tech companies and among stakeholders of how religion or belief is manifested and FoRB is affected online;

  • how to integrate FoRB into human-rights impact assessments in tech companies in its interdependence with human rights like the freedom of expression;

  • how to deal with regulatory environments across the world and potentially come to a consensus;

  • how the role public education and training facilities for digital technologies users play, how to extend and leverage them, and how to build strong alliance and networks for fostering them.

At the Ministerial, the misuse of AI for growing surveillance and transnational repression was introduced as a phenomenon (“We have to learn from silence.”) as well as with concrete examples. Examples of how people living in exile in Germany are affected by transnational repression were also aiming at consciousness-raising for this phenomenon which does not stop at the borders of democratic states. The Article 18 Alliance should have a follow-up exchange on this.

The Federal Government Commissioner of Freedom of Religion or Belief, Frank Schwabe, and the Chair of The Article 18 Alliance, Robert Rehak, jointly suggest within The Article 18 Alliance to take up concrete follow-up action on FoRB and AI. This means to set up a work stream with a multi-stakeholder dialogue with governments, civil society, religious actors and tech companies, focusing on:

  • deeper human rights impact assessments in tech companies explicitly dealing with FoRB and its interconnection with other human rights;

  • an exchange on the basic concepts underlying the stakeholders‘ approaches to AI and FoRB

  • a taxonomy of how behavior related to religion or belief manifests online.

The Ministerial was attended by more than 120 people and 30 government delegations.