Africa AI Academy | Premise
There’s optimism in the power of innovative technology: Most people remain fundamentally optimistic about the power of innovation and technology to improve life. The work and the products of technology companies such as Google empowers billions of people, drives economic growth and offers important tools for people’s everyday lives.
But there are difficult issues to confront regarding technology’s broader impacts: This optimism about technological innovation does not obscure the challenges - including those posed by misuse of technologies. New tools inevitably affect not just the people and businesses who use them, but also cultures, economies and societies as a whole.
The scrutiny of lawmakers and others often improves technology products and the policies that govern them. Many laws and regulations have contributed to the internet’s vitality: competition and consumer protection laws, intermediary liability protection, advertising regulations, and copyright, to name just a few. Existing legal frameworks reflect trade-offs that help everyone reap the benefits of modern technologies, minimise social costs, and respect fundamental rights. As technology evolves, we need to stay attuned to how best to improve those rules.
High quality regulation is especially critical for policies that impact innovative industries: Evidence-based decision-making carried out through a transparent, open, and participatory regulatory process is more likely to adequately protect the public while also fostering economic growth and trade, strengthening democratic governance, and building trust.
Building knowledge and practice in Good Regulatory Practices is essential to high quality regulation: Good regulatory practices are internationally recognized processes, systems, tools and methods for improving the quality of regulations. GRP aims at making sure that regulations are fit for purpose and will deliver what they are set out to achieve in terms of policy objectives.