Artificial intelligence has become part of our lives. The Data & Society proposal below invites us to consider ways to ensure this technology does not become a threat. In addition, we return to beneficial ownership with a new report and bring you a proposal to learn about election data.

Algorithmic Harms

AI has enormous potential, allowing us to streamline processes, program, write, create videos, images, and marketing campaigns quickly and efficiently. However, as we saw in the previous issue of the Data Journalism Newsletter, it also has risks. This is why we increasingly see papers such as the Chatam House paper on AI governance and human rights.

In this regard, in 2022, Data & Society convened a workshop with researchers and human rights advocates worldwide, asking them to consider algorithmic harms undervalued by current governance approaches.

Their premise is that the different ways these systems can negatively affect the world, people, communities, societies, and ecosystems go beyond the more commonly discussed issues of surveillance, bias, and opacity.

They identified cases that have gone unnoticed by technologists and other AI professionals, such as harms inflicted at the intersection of medicine and technology and impacts on the natural environment. From these findings, he is publishing a series of essays to raise awareness of harms and increase our ability to defend against them.

 Discover the stories

Beneficial Ownership. How are we doing?

The secrecy surrounding companies' real beneficiaries is one of the major drivers of illicit financial flows. As we have commented on other occasions, this translates into greater financial instability, increased inequality and the erosion of public trust in institutions, the State and democracy.

A report has just been published that assesses the state of real ownership transparency in Latin America. It is based on the Tax Justice Network’s Financial Secrecy Index 2022. It covers some of the latest developments and progress in the region and delves into the situation in Argentina, Costa Rica, and Ecuador.

The findings are closely aligned with the principles for effective beneficial ownership disclosure, the latest updated version published in January by Open Ownership. Latin America has a solid basis for making progress on this issue, but there is a lack of tools to make legal frameworks effective. There is still a need to improve transparency and make beneficial ownership registries available to all stakeholders, including civil society. Progress must also be made on mechanisms to exchange and cross-reference this information with other relevant sources.

💸Read the full report

A Push for Open Election Data

Those who have worked with election data know how difficult it can be to deal with it. You have to understand the electoral process, the types of data produced at each stage, the principles of opening it up, etc. That’s why the resources offered by the Open Election Data Initiative have caught our attention.

The initiative seeks to unlock the potential of election data to promote accountability. They have created a series of guides and tools, available in several languages, that allow you to understand the components of the electoral process, explain the principles of open data, and how to analyze it.

 Learn about election data

On the Radar

• 🟥 Preparations begin for Open Gov Week | OGP

• 🗺️ A meeting on maps, women and design (es) | OpenLabEc

• 🏳️‍🌈 A platform mapping diversity on European streets | MD

• 📙 A new Open Contracting registry | Open Contracting

• 🔵 The next OGP Global Summit has now been announced | OGP