The United Nations University Institute in Macau (UNU Macau) is to host a component event of this year’s United Nations World Data Forum.
Billed as “the most important international collaboration platform” of its kind, the forum takes place this year in Hangzhou from 24 to 27 April, aiming to “spur data innovation, nurture partnerships, mobilise high-level political and financial support for data, and build a pathway to better data for sustainable development”.
UNU Macau will host a satellite discussion entitled “Dealing with data dilemmas: Risks and opportunities of a human-centred systems approach to data and digital technology development”. The event is scheduled for 25 April and will be live-streamed at the main conference in Hangzhou, TDM reports.
Prof. Tshilidzi Marwala, the rector of UNU and an under-secretary-general of the UN, will attend the Macao event, where the adverse impact of technology will reportedly be one of the core themes.
[See more: Macao isn’t doing enough to protect workers, the UN says]
Dr Franz Gatzweiler, a senior research advisor at UNU Macau, told TDM that “Data can be used in exploitative ways to identify and change opinions; data in social media can be manipulated for personal or political gain; misinformation and disinformation can spread, reinforcing beliefs based on false facts making the truth hard to find or even irrelevant”.
Senior researcher Dr Jaimee Stuart said that young people in particular were “suffering from adverse cyber-psychological health impacts” and added that “advances in Artificial Intelligence are threatening human freedom and augmenting these trends”.
The Macao discussion will be one of 100 events and 70 parallel sessions making up this year’s forum.
