On February 12, local time, the United Nations General Assembly appointed 40 members to the Independent International Scientific Panel on Artificial Intelligence, based on a list submitted by UN Secretary-General António Guterres. The members will serve three-year terms. Two Chinese AI experts, Jian Wang and Haitao Song, were among those appointed.
In a statement, Guterres noted that the panel members were selected from more than 2,600 candidates worldwide following an independent review conducted by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the United Nations Office for Digital and Emerging Technologies, and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The panel brings together experts from a wide range of disciplines, with an emphasis on geographical diversity and gender balance.
Guterres said that the panel brings together leading AI experts from around the world, with geographical diversity and gender balance, and will provide independent and impartial assessments of AI’s opportunities, risks, and impacts to support the Global Dialogue on AI Governance.
Guterres noted that, as artificial intelligence advances rapidly while technological capacities vary considerably across countries, the panel will help fill a “missing piece” in global governance. By providing rigorous and independent scientific insights, it will help countries engage in discussions on artificial intelligence from a shared knowledge base and inform the forthcoming Global Dialogue on AI Governance.
In August last year, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution on global AI governance, establishing both the Independent International Scientific Panel on Artificial Intelligence and the Global Dialogue on AI Governance to promote sustainable development and help bridge the digital divide. The panel is also expected to release its first report to inform related governance discussions to be held in Geneva in July this year.
Academician Jian Wang entered the Department of Psychology at the former Hangzhou University in 1980 and received his bachelor’s degree in 1984. During his graduate studies, he was supervised by Professor Zuxiang Zhu, a renowned Chinese psychologist and pioneer in ergonomics, and received his PhD in psychology in 1990 before joining the university as a faculty member. He was promoted to professor in 1992 and became a doctoral supervisor in 1993. From 1993 to 1999, he served as Chair of the Department of Psychology at Hangzhou University—later the Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences at Zhejiang University following the university merger in 1998—and Director of the National Professional Laboratory of Industrial Psychology. During his years of study and work in the Department, his research covered areas including virtual reality and intelligent human–computer interaction, aviation psychology, and cognitive ergonomics.
Wang was elected a Member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering in 2019. He is the founder of Alibaba Cloud and currently serves as Director of Zhejiang Lab.
The Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences at Zhejiang University extends its warmest congratulations to its distinguished alumnus, Academician Jian Wang, on this prestigious appointment.
