Celebrating the 35th Anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child

On June 20, Athens hosted the second Lyceum conference, as part of the Lyceum Project. The project was set up to explore some of the key challenges outlined in the landmark white paper published by Professors John Tasioulas and Josiah Ober: Lyceum Project: AI Ethics with Aristotle. We could not have chosen a better place to explore these deep questions about a truly `human centred’ approach to the ethics of AI than Lyceum, the birth site of the philosophy school founded by Aristotle.

This year’s conference brings together world-leading scholars at the intersection of philosophy and artificial intelligence to explore a vital topic: children in the age of AI. The focus is on how technology can support and enrich a new generation that is growing up with — and potentially being raised by — AI. The event was opened by Mr Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Prime Minister of Greece, and Baroness Beeban Kidron, a long-time advocate for children’s rights in the digital age, who led a powerful conversation on AI and children’s rights, exploring what it means to be a child in the age of AI.

Dr Jun Zhao was invited to speak on the ‘Age-Appropriate AI Design’ panel, where she was joined by experts from around the world to discuss how to build AI systems that are not only age-appropriate for children but also ethically grounded and tailored to the rights and best interests of children. The panel explored multidisciplinary strategies to ensure that child-centered AI reflects diverse perspectives and responsibly connects research and industry.

The panel was chaired by Dr Mhairi Aitken of the Alan Turing Institute to unpack the following questions:

• What being ``age-appropriate’’ means for each respective discipline, and whehter it is the right focus for advancing children’s interests in relation to the development of AI

• How we can move from academic and theoretical research into industry practice, how effectively this currently happens, and what we can do to improve it

• What age-appropriate design of AI in the year 2030 would be like – and what changes we need to make to make this a reality.

We all agree that ensuring age-appropriateness is a good starting point. However, we must not equate it with fully addressing the developmental differences among children. At the same time, we cannot overlook children’s fundamental rights — including their rights to respect, agency, and flourishing — when designing technologies intended to protect their safety and address their vulnerabilities.