Project Coordinator

BACKGROUND

This Project aims for UNESCO to provide support to the Dutch Authority for Digital Infrastructure, and to the members of the Dutch and European Working Groups of Competent Authorities on AI, to enhance their competencies and capacity to supervise AI in compliance with the forthcoming AI Act and other relevant legislation and international standards, such as UNESCO’s Recommendation on the Ethics of AI. 

While there is a general agreement on the need to govern artificial intelligence (AI), the global governance landscape for AI technologies is highly complex and rapidly transforming, with new developments and releases of AI systems giving rise to challenges on a regular basis. The fast proliferation of generative AI models such as ChatGPT, Midjourney and DALL·E 2 has underscored the urgency for European Union (EU) Member States to ensure effective supervision of the AI industry in compliance with the forthcoming AI Act, existing sectorial legislation (e.g. Medical Devices Regulation – MDR, the Radio Equipment Directive – RED, and Machinery Products Regulation – MPR, etc) and other international instruments, most notably the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Recommendation on the Ethics of AI. 

Regulators globally are working to acquire the necessary capabilities to confront these challenges, and EU Competent Authorities seek to enhance their capacities to govern AI technologies through the EU’s forthcoming AI Act. When entering into force, the AI Act will put specific frameworks and mechanisms in place to ensure that AI systems are safe and respect existing laws, fundamental rights, and European values. Among those mechanisms are requirements pertaining to accountability, transparency, human oversight, and data quality. The array of mechanisms involved, and the multiple cross-checking points, will require competent authorities to build up a unique set of skills and capacities, to utilize different assessment tools and develop frameworks for ensuring that the requirements of the forthcoming AI Act will be implemented in a cohesive manner.  

As part of its commitment to enhancing the capabilities to govern the rapidly evolving AI domain, the Dutch Authority for Digital Infrastructure has initiated and currently chairs both the national and European working group of Competent Authorities on AI. Both these collectives seek to address the complex and varied challenges associated with overseeing AI technologies. 

The primary goal of this project is to enhance the capacity of the Dutch Authority for Digital Infrastructure and the larger collective of Competent Authorities on AI to define and implement strategies that effectively regulate and enforce AI in alignment with the forthcoming AI Act, and other relevant legislations and international standards. Key to this endeavour are two primary areas of focus: (i) the development of requisite skills, and (ii) the optimization of collaborative efforts to leverage resources and knowledge.  

The Project Coordinator will work under the overall authority of the Assistant Director-General for Social and Human Sciences Sector (ADG/SHS), and under the direct supervision of the Head of Ethics of AI Unit at UNESCO Headquarters.

SCOPE OF WORK

• The aim of this Project Coordinator role is to lead the development of research, case study and training outputs, as well as to supervise and coordinate the project. More specifically, the Project Coordinator will be responsible for contributing to the delivery of the following outputs:
• Enhance the AI supervision state-of-play report:  Update and incorporate competent authorities’ perspective and feedback to the AI supervision state-of-play report. The aim is to complement the existing report on the state-of-play on AI report and to disseminate it to the members of the Working Group of Competent Authorities.
• Activities include: Bilateral interviews with competent authorities, surveys and focus groups, identifying key themes, trends and challenges, assessing other stakeholders’ involvement, collecting Working Group feedback and incorporate in the report.
• Updated report on the state-of-play of AI supervision incorporating the project’s stakeholders’ feedback by September 2024.
• Case studies on AI supervision: A series of case studies on AI supervision are developed and discussed with the Working Groups’ members.
• Activities include: Selecting a specific sectoral agency and simulate a scenario of supervising the deployment of AI in specific products and sectors, selecting relevant cases or scenarios exploring common AI supervision complexities, piloting UNESCO’s Ethical Impact Assessment (EIA) for conformity assessment and market surveillance, developing case studies describing the problem, solution, and outcome; conducting a discussion sessions with WG members; identifying best practices for AI supervision, compiling final recommendations in written.
• An intermediate report on the selected case studies by September 2024.
• A report on the selected case studies by November 2024.
• Attend conferences on the topic of AI policy and governance to identify best practices on AI supervision, conduct bilateral meetings, and contribute to the overall visibility and outreach of the project.
• Overseeing the implementation of the project: The candidate shall be responsible for the overall supervision and implementation of the activities defined in the project Terms of Reference.
• Activities include: Supervision of team members, ensuring that milestones are met and deliverables are submitted on time, closely supervise the work of other experts that will be hired for this project, coordinate with the beneficiary and partners, prepare missions, participate in mission.
• Mission to attend project meeting of the Working Group of supervisory authorities to attend the meetings, present the project towards the main stakeholders, conduct additional interviews, and contribute to the overall stakeholder relationship and outreach.
• intermediate reporting to donors or financial partners of the project by November 2024.
• monthly reports on the project’s progress.
• Missions to attend project coordination meetings with main stakeholders, to inform about the progress of projects and contribute to the overall stakeholder relationship and outreach. The exact dates of these missions are to be determined by the secretariat.
• Contributing to the ongoing work of the secretariat on AI ethics: The candidate shall identify synergies between this project and other projects on AI ethics that the secretariat is conducting around the world, including on capacity building for AI governance for different governments. The goal is to enrich and cross fertilize the overall work.
• Activities include: contributing to ongoing research and analysis conducted by the secretariat; participating in meetings and missions; presenting the work to different stakeholders; supporting the secretariat with the preparation of different materials such as speeches, presentations, blogs, white papers etc.
• a communication strategy on the project with the aim of enhancing its visibility and enriching ongoing initiatives by the secretariat such as the Global AI Ethics and Governance Observatory by June 2024.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

Education

• Advanced university degree (PhD preferred, Master’s or equivalent required) in governance of artificial intelligence, ethical and social implications of artificial intelligence or digital technologies, law and technology, computer science, data science, computational social science, or other related fields.

Work experience

• A minimum of five years of professional experience on the ethical, legal, social and governance issues of artificial intelligence and related digital technologies, at national and/or international level.
• Proven experience in conducting research and analysis and/or implementing programmes/projects on the ethical, legal, social and governance issues of artificial intelligence and related digital technologies.
• Experience in producing policy-oriented reports or recommendations are strongly desirable. Experience in case study development and science-to-policy trainings are desirable.

Skills/Competencies

• Very good understanding of the ethical, legal, social and governance issues of artificial intelligence and related digital technologies.
• Excellent knowledge about the dynamics of governance of AI, including policies, legislative and regulatory frameworks, institutional mechanisms, organizational structures and processes.
• Excellent knowledge about supervision and enforcement mechanisms at national/international level.
• Familiarity with the AI Act and/or UNESCO’s Recommendation on the Ethics of AI.
• Proven ability to lead and manage projects, coordinate with teams, and work on multiple interrelated outputs.
• Proven ability to draft clearly and concisely and to produce high quality policy-oriented analysis and synthesis documents.
• Proven ability to design and conduct trainings for policy professionals, preferably on topics related to AI.

Languages

• Excellent knowledge of English.

Source: https://careers.unesco.org/job/Other-cities-Consultant-Project-Coordinator/791819602/