North African Internet Governance Forum (NAIGF’22)
Artificial Intelligence and Trusted Cyberspace
15-17 December 2022 Rabat, Morocco
The sixth edition of the North African Internet Governance Forum (NAIGF’22) was held in Rabat, Morocco on 15-17 December 2022, back-to-back with the 4th North African School of Internet Governance held from 12 to 14 December 2022.
The forum was organized under the overarching theme “Artificial Intelligence and Trusted Cyberspace”.
Opening Session
In his opening address, the Chair of the NAIGF MAG Mr. Tijani BEN JEMAA welcomed the Director of the Higher Institute of Information and Communication “ISIC” (host of the forum), the local organizing committee, the NAIGF Multi-stakeholder Administrative Group members, the speakers and all the attendees to the 6th North African Internet Governance Forum about the Artificial Intelligence and Trusted Cyberspace, organized this year in Rabat, Morocco for the second time after the 2019 edition.
He then thanked Mr. Abdellatif Bensfia the Director of the ISIC, and all the institute officers for their welcome and their total support in the preparation and organization of this forum.
He made a special thanks to the local organizing committee led by Mr Aziz Hilali and the sponsors of the event as well, noting that without their support, the forum couldn’t be organized with attendees from the other North African countries.
Thematic Sessions
- Speaker 1: Aroua HEDHILI (Assistant Professor at ENSI, Tunisia)
- Speaker 2: Jamyl MAMRI (Expert in Digital Transformation, CEO of Synchronism, Morocco)
- Speaker 1: Abdessamad Moutei (Enseignant Chercheur en Journalisme et Communication, Morocco)
- Speaker 2: Khaled GULAM (Dean of Media Faculty, Tripoli University, Libya)
- Speaker 3: Fathi SHAMS EL DIN (Professor of media and digital media, Egypt)
- Speaker 1: XIANHONG Hu (Com. & information program specialist, UNESCO)
- Speaker 2: Anja Gengo (focal point for the NRIs at UN IGF Secretariat)
- Speaker 1: Omar SHURAN (NAIGF MAG Member)
- Speaker 2: Houssine Saf (NAIGF MAG Member)
- Speaker 3: Fayçal Bayouli (NAIGF MAG Member)
- Speaker 3: Fayçal Bayouli (NAIGF MAG Member)
- Speaker: Houssine SAF (NAIGF MAG Member, Morocco) (NAIGF MAG Member)
A very interesting discussion was engaged about the huge benefits of the Artificial Intelligence and also the treats of its use in all fields. Some think that the AI should be used as much as possible despite all the risks it may bring, while others are very cautious and prefer not use it to be in the safe side. In between, there are a considerable number of attendees who believe that the AI should be use in a manner that it doesn’t cause harm
It was also noted that the result can be biased not only if the data used are biased, but also if the algorithm is intentionally designed in a biased way.
Closing Session
Mr. Tijani BEN JEMAA, Chair of the NAIGF MAG thanked the experts present and those who contributed remotely for their valuable contribution and for the rich, open and interesting exchanges with the participants.
He made a special mention of consideration for the Forum sponsors, as well as the local organizing committee members who helped in the preparation of the two events and who were mobilized throughout the week to make everything work smoothly and perfectly. Aziz and his team have been wonderful.
He finally reiterated the warm thanks of the NAIGF MAG to the Director of the Higher Institute of Information and Communication (ISIC) and through him all the Institute officers and staff for their support and their hospitality.
Attendance
Most of the attendees were from the host country Morocco (65%), while 20% came from Tunisia, 9% from Egypt, 9% from Mauritania and 5% from Sudan.
For the second consecutive year, we got more women than men, which is a sign of success of our outreach process; more than 54% were females while only 45% were males.
