 Welcome to the ITU studio engineer. We're very pleased to be joining the studio today. We're Stan Manuel Latuzzi Who is the director of the data pop alliance? Manuel, welcome to the studio. Thank you. I love to start by by asking you a little bit about this symposium the world telecommunication and ICT indicator symposium in 2018 Why is this symposium important to your organization and at the ICT sector in general? Well, so it's the first time that I come to the to the symposium I've been meaning to come a couple of times before And I think it was the right time because I mean ITU has been pretty involved in the past couple of years increasingly involved in a not just its core business of ICT but increasingly in things around data big data and and AI And and it brings together People that I don't usually or whom I don't usually like you know interact with So that's why I decided to come and I'm pleased to be here now the ICT sector and in particular emerging technologies such as AI artificial intelligence and IOT incident things are generating huge data streams How do you think this data can be harnessed to promote the development of an inclusive information society and let's also discuss it is this amount of data a threat to privacy? I mean historically, we know that technology all technologies have these like two sides The bright dark side of technology. Some people say that technology is neutral Because the sum might be zero. I don't think technology is ever neutral. It's always used to some end It's an enabler of your you know of human intent and and in capacity or an amplifier And so of course, there are legitimate concerns about privacy about growing digital divides and biases and prejudice being embedded in code so and and I think these need to be Unpacked recognized addressed at the same time. I don't think we should be cynical about how much Technology and data can or could help It's we don't live in a world that Is I think very fair We've made progress on different SDGs for instance like poverty has come down quite a bit in the past decade But there's still a long way to go to make our societies fairer More just our processes more transparent more efficient and I do think that data And AI can help and let's talk about being fair the 50-50 milestone for internet use has been surpassed now However, there are still far too many people around the world that's still waiting to reap the benefits of the digital economy What more do you think that can be done to bring people more people online? So I mean first of all, I think increasingly people are accessing and will be accessing the internet through mobile phones or so not the you know typical way that they used to ten years ago and and I think they are already those who have access to the internet or to like digital networks Already like reaping a lot of benefits. I mean mobile money like mobile transfers are really, you know taking off and but but yes, I mean the risk of increasing inequities Including through the use of the data or the misuse of the data being generated by those services is a major concern in the world That is already very very unequal. So what to do about it. I think I Think education is is a still probably the most powerful tool that humans have So educate people teach them what is being done with their data how they could also weigh in and provide systems and projects and channels For them to actually engage and so one example is to do Just organize some events or I don't believe in hackathons for the sake of a hackathons But it's those events that can actually make people more more more aware And I talked today about a project called opal which is the open algorithms project in Colombia and Senegal that aims not just at building Technological platform for querying those data, but also governance set up governance standards for people to actually Be able to say what they want their data to be used for Now you've been speaking here at the symposium obviously been listening to I wanted to find out for me What key takeaways you think people will come away from here? I mean from the from the discussion and the question so after the presentation I think things are Like changing maturing There is there is still this so like simmering fear Which which is in great part legitimate about as I mentioned the the abuses and misuses of those technologies but I sense way less pushback and And also like yeah skepticism or or cynicism I think a lot of people increasingly in governments in academia in international organizations I really want to like jump in and see how they could how they could be part of it and I think also one one risk is also the the misuse of Those data and technology and and for those of us who have children so those that I call the the data generation And I think we have a responsibility to shape Like the future of this ecosystem in ways that will benefit them So it's not not using those data And tools, but it's using them in ways that will be beneficial for them and not harm also the environment Well, it's definitely beneficial for us to have you here in the studio Thank you very much for joining us and we look forward to catching up with you again soon Perhaps another one of these events. Thank you. Thank you