Responsible by Design with Anticipating Vulnerabilities

Simultaneous interpreting/subtitles: Japanese and English.

The social implementation of innovations emerging from developments in science and technology, such as artificial intelligence and genome editing, requires in contemporary society not only the outcomes of natural science research, but also the public understanding of the stakeholders in science and technology. Globally, the acceleration of innovation or society’s engagement with emerging technologies requires the establishment of technology governance that also integrates the knowledge of the humanities and social sciences. In Japan, the Sixth Science and Technology Basic Plan emphasises the significance of Convergence of Knowledge for the realisation of Society 5.0 and calls for strategic promotion measures.

In this international symposium to celebrate the establishment of the Niigata University ELSI Centre, which will be set up under the slogan ‘ Responsible by Design with anticipating vulnerabilities ‘, lectures will be given on the frontline government initiatives to address policy issues associated with digitalisation in Japan, and Japanese regional universities will share their concepts for solving problems in science, technology, and regional society. The symposium will also share concepts from Japan’s regional universities on how to solve the challenges of science, technology and local communities.

The following keynote speech will introduce the concept of anticipatory innovation, which emphasises foresight and forward-looking activities in the engagement with emerging technologies, the latest innovation policy model following the traditional innovation of developing new products, which is currently under discussion at the OECD, and mission-oriented innovation policy, which is currently the focus of national science and technology innovation policy. The concept of anticipatory innovation, which emphasises foresight and anticipatory future oriented activities in responding to emerging technologies, will be introduced. What kind of public policy is required in the difficult-to-predict VUCA era? Findings from OECD research on systems thinking, future insights and EBPM will raise the need for policy innovation to build new methods, structures and capabilities for foresight and engagement with emerging technologies such as AI.

Based on these cutting-edge practices of technology governance, the international context and the underlying theoretical models, we will discuss the use of information technology in the humanities, which at first glance appears to be far from digital and provide an opportunity to consider approaches and methods for future social implementation of ethically responsible science and technology in the community. The conference will provide an opportunity to rethink approaches and methods for implementing ethical and responsible implementation of science and technology in society. From here, we would like to provide an opportunity to recognize the functions and roles of universities and the humanities and social sciences, which are expected to play a role in forming the data infrastructures for the realisation of Society 5.0 as one of the stakeholders.

Acknowledgment This symposium was partially supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 19K14279 and 20K00268