December Digital Matters

This month’s Digital Matters—our monthly round-up of news, research, events, and notable uses of tech—comes to your inbox a little early this month. In this special issue, we’re taking a closer look to the major themes and takeaways from the tech and digital space in 2023.

This year, AI dominated headlines. We cut through the hype and take a hard look at the governance issues that need more structure to ensure AI tools are more inclusive and work to the benefit of end-users. We believe a human-centric approach must be the core driver and focus of digital development and policies governing tech.

We also look at how the emerging field of Digital Public Infrastructure has gained steam in 2023, exploring the potential to replicate success and learn from failure through cross-sector collaboration and country-level knowledge sharing.

Finally, we jump into the near digital future just weeks out from 2024. Many unknowns surrounding a big year of elections and ongoing global crises. Spoiler alert: there’s a lot to unpack.

In December, AI continued to be the buzzword of the global tech ecosystem, as demonstrated by the “word of the year” announcements from leading dictionaries. In parallel to the excitement over AI, discussions also picked up surrounding how government action can make sure users are protected – we look at one way to make this a reality: a national approach to data privacy legislation. December also featured new advancements in the Digital Public Infrastructure movement: we cover a major technology summit hosted by Carnegie India and a progress report from the UN Universal Safeguards for Digital Public Infrastructure Initiative.

1. AI, everywhere, all the time

2023 was a big year for AI – aptly summarized by the excitement surrounding the annual word of the year announcements by three leading dictionary publishers. In early November, the Collins English Dictionary kicked things off, unveiling “AI” as the word of the year. This news was closely followed by an announcement from Cambridge Dictionary that their word of the year is “hallucinate” – “when AI hallucinates, it produces false information.” Rounding out the month, U.S. based Merriam Webster announced “authentic” is the word of the year in late November. Authentic is usually a high-volume lookup, but in 2023, authentic saw a substantial increase, driven by interest in AI, celebrity culture, identity, and social media. Does this mean we have truly hit a tipping point and will be addressing the core questions at the intersection of technology, governance, and humanity?

The release of ChatGPT in November 2022 and the explosion of publicly-available AI tools over the past year has invigorated a public reckoning on what technology means for the future of humanity. In March 2023, the Future of Life Institute released an open letter signed by AI scientists, experts, and leaders in the field calling for a six-month pause on AI development, given the slate of profound and complex challenges created by this technological leap forward. While no such pause came to fruition, passionate debates among members of civil society, government institutions, and within the tech industry on what equitable, inclusive, and safe AI development and governance looks like have continued.

From diversifying ownership and control of Large Language Model development, to including non-Western voices in debates about governance, many different proposals are on the table to broaden representation and steer AI in an ethical direction. Yet what is clear now is that the decisions made today on the AI front will impact the resiliency and inclusivity of our digital future in countless ways.

One area receiving a lot of attention is how AI can enhance public-private partnerships, specifically in the procurement space. Global conflict and the Covid-19 pandemic have upended supply chains and increased costs, creating serious challenges in the already complicated world of procurement. But do attempts to automate procurement decisions lead to the best outcomes for the people impacted by these buying decisions? Smarter buying isn’t necessarily a bad thing, however to ensure better system outcomes in the long run, we believe public procurement strategies should always prioritize the needs of end-users.

2. Keeping humans at the center of tech development and policy

When considering the progress made in digital transformation this past year, it is also important to consider who is being left behind. In our July newsletter, we discussed the persistence of a global digital divide caused by internet fragmentation and online censorship. Ensuring that technological advancement aligns with the societal good is an imperative for inclusive and responsible digital development, as we argued in August. Measures that increase transparency on the part of tech companies and digital platforms can go a long way to protecting end-users. Maintaining and incentivizing open source technology is also a key lever for inclusive digital development and creating a sustainable and equitable global digital ecosystem.

Alongside innovations in the tech space must be guardrails and safety measures to protect those most at risk for harm. Our May edition of Digital Matters dives into the question of how digital solutions can be harnessed to produce people-centric outcomes. The rise of data-driven AI models have reinvigorated debate over how data is collected, used, and stored by private companies. One way to tackle this problem that has gained traction over the past year is the advancement of a national approach to data protection, which would build off state-level legislation on data privacy and expand protections for millions of Americans. As we’ve said before, tech on its own is not inherently equitable or inclusive – it is up to industry actors and policymakers to work together to create incentives and guardrails that make tech work better for everyone.

3. The Digital Public Infrastructure movement gains traction worldwide

We kicked off 2023 discussing the need to modernize the technology that underpin critical public systems and services, a demand underscored by operational failures in airline and mail delivery sectors. The necessity of interoperable civic solutions that cut across sectors and take advantage of the benefits offered by next generation technology is captured in the emerging field of Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI). While we argued in our February newsletter that DPI tends to be an undervalued concept in the democracy and human rights ecosystem, we have been encouraged by the progress, attention, and traction DPI initiatives have gained over the course of 2023, from DIIA Day in Washington D.C. to this year’s G20 meetings in India.

One venture that is exemplary of what has happened in the DPI ecosystem this past year is the launch of the Universal Safeguards for Digital Public Infrastructure Initiative at the 2023 Sustainable Development Goals summit, which we covered in September. Earlier this month, the UN Office of the Secretary-General’s Envoy on Technology and UNDP hosted a public webinar to provide updates on how the initiative has progressed and share important timelines and milestones. Comments from UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner emphasized DPI’s ability to impact progress on the Sustainable Development Goals, while Amandeep Gill, the UN Secretary General’s Envoy on Technology, noted that DPI has become a priority issue for the UN, based on increasing interest and demand from member states. As Gill put it, the SafeDPI initiative’s goal is the creation of a unified framework of universal safeguards that can facilitate inclusive, safe, and sustainable adoption of DPI across the globe and get digital transformation “right”. The process will involve multi-stakeholder co-creation that takes in-country experiences and lessons into account.

Many governments worldwide are trying to harness the power of DPI to supercharge “non-linear change and growth,” in the words of Kamya Chandra, Chief Strategy Officer at the global Centre for DPI, on the latest episode of the Talking Digital Public Infrastructure podcast. Government uptake of new technology tends to be slow, but many national bodies are working to speed up adoption – one example of this is India. In early December, Carnegie India hosted their annual Global Technology Summit, which brings together industry experts, policymakers, scientists, and stakeholders from all over the world to deliberate on the changing nature of technology and geopolitics. Other countries are building on the infrastructure created during the Covid-19 to make DPIs a permanent fixture in their country’s digital transformation. Earlier this year at the UN General Assembly meeting in New York City, representatives from Togo discussed how they are drawing on the success of their NOVISSI initiative, which was created during the pandemic to facilitate cash transfers to citizens, to establish an Interoperable Social Information System that will prioritize “inclusive unique identification, a dynamic social registry, and a direct payment platform.” Togo sees DPI as a powerful tool to combat poverty and promote social inclusion.

4. Cross-sector collaboration on DPI drives digital transformation

As discussed in our March edition, DPI can help streamline the delivery of government services and benefits through core functions like digital payments, identity verification, and data exchange. Many governments are not only recognizing the importance of DPI as a driver of domestic digital transformation, but also seeing how success can be replicated across sectors and borders to fuel international development. In our June newsletter, we discussed how a multilateral approach to collaboration and knowledge sharing between governments can catalyze country-level adoption of DPI and accelerate inclusive digital transformation without “reinventing the wheel”.

One domestic initiative that is stepping up to the challenge is Diia, Ukraine’s revolutionary e-governance app. Diia, which translates to “action” and is also an acronym for “the State and Me,” was rolled out in 2020 to streamline the delivery of more than 50 government services by giving Ukrainian citizens access from their smartphones. The project took on a new sense of urgency with Russia’s February 2022 invasion: many of the app's features were expanded to give Ukrainians the ability to relay Russian troop movements, access evacuation documents, and recoup property losses caused by Russian strikes. In 2023, USAID – which assisted Ukraine's Ministry of Digital Transformation in funding the app’s development – announced a plan to share Ukraine’s approach to digital government with other countries, including Colombia, Kosovo and Zambia, using Diia as a template. Ukraine’s willingness to support countries across the economic and geographic spectrum in pursuing human-centric digital transformation will set an example for how domestic initiatives can support and propel international development, serving as an engine for sustainable global economic growth. For more on Diia and how it may help optimize the future of post-crisis recovery efforts and help administer a damaged property compensation program, stay tuned for a DIGI report set to launch next year with our colleagues with Future of Land and Housing.

Looking ahead to 2024

2024 will be the biggest election year in history, with 76 countries and more than four million people heading to the polls across democratic and authoritarian states. Without effective governance of new digital, AI-powered tools, many fear 2024 will be the U.S.’ first “AI Election,” given the power this technology has to produce misinformation, greatly expand the reach of campaigns, and impact voting decisions. We’re not alone in our concern over AI and elections: a new UChicago Harris/AP-NORC poll found that 58% of U.S. adults believe AI tools “will increase the spread of false and misleading information during next year’s elections”.

What’s more, elections won’t be the only events impacted by tech: we expect to see an increasing interplay between the digital realm and international crises in the next year. Both the Ukraine-Russia conflict and the Israel-Hamas crisis demonstrate how new digital tools can be enablers for the creation and spread of false and unverified information, as we discussed in October. We expect this troublesome trend to continue in 2024.

At the heart of concerns over the dangerous effects new tools could have on the integrity of elections is how the tech industry and governments are approaching governance of digital platforms. From the AI companies that provide the public access to their tools, to the social media platforms that facilitate the spread of deceptive content such as deepfakes, effective governance that puts in place guardrails and safety measures can prevent these platforms being used for bad ends. In the leadup to next year’s big elections, we hope to see more robust and specific actions on the part of platforms to guard against nefarious use of their tools. Creating interoperable governance frameworks and infrastructure that cuts across platforms can help cover gaps – one such approach, Democracy By Design, lays out a “content-agnostic” election integrity framework for online platforms to follow.

For those following these issues closely, Freedom House has released a new tool, Election Watch for the Digital Age, as part of a research initiative tracking how digital platforms, the internet, elections, democracy, and human rights intersect around the world.

On the topic of democracy, we’re also looking ahead to the third Summit for Democracy, which will be hosted by South Korea in March 2024. The April edition of Digital Matters covered the second Summit, which was co-hosted by the United States. Key topics of conversation raised at this year’s Summit were counteracting democratic backsliding and combating the rise of authoritarianism worldwide. On the tech front, participants emphasized the role democracy-affirming technologies can play in strengthening and safeguarding democratic institutions. The theme for next year’s Summit, “Democracy for Future Generations,” promises to be forward-looking, with a special emphasis on technology. Among the topics slated for discussion are how technological advances and digitalization intersect with democracy and anti-corruption. As the world’s largest convening of democratic leaders and non-governmental partners, the 2024 Summit provides the forum and opportunity for a diverse set of stakeholders to engage in public-private collaboration, a critical aspect of effective and democratic tech governance.

Until next year!

This January, Digital Matters turns one. To celebrate, we’re launching a mini-site where you can explore the DM archives and see for yourself how the tech space has evolved over the course of 2023. As we wrap up the year, our hearts are full of gratitude for the thriving community of public interest tech practitioners and sustainers we enjoy working with both here in the U.S. and abroad. As we reflect on the past year and get ready for new adventures in 2024, we’d also like to thank you for joining us each month in exploring the good, bad, and the ugly when it comes to tech and digital policy. Let us know what you think, share with your friends and colleagues, and check back in January for the first Digital Matters round-up of 2024. See you next year!

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