The upsurge of a tech & human rights consultant : Michaela Jamelska

The rise of a technology & innovation professional : Michaela Jamelska: Having large numbers of students in their classes and few digital tools to utilize makes it difficult for teachers to ensure that all students can reach their potential” Michaela Jamelska says. “COVID-19 uncovered the current educational system’s several weaknesses, and our unpreparedness, as well as our educational faculty and staff’s lack of skills in working with digital tools. This resulted in failure to track homework and effectively adjust to the new normal. This time, a virus disrupted school life, but we need to rethink our preparedness in light of climate change threats and the fast deployment of technologies as well. Next time, we must be ready.” Discover extra info on Michaela Jamelska.

The reality of limited technology access for women is a real issue in 2023 says Michaela Jamelska: According to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), there are still 2.7 billion people who do not have a reliable internet connection, and women are disproportionately affected. The digital divide is a term used to describe the gap between those who have access to technology and those who do not. Unfortunately, this divide disproportionately affects women, particularly those living in low-income communities. This means that many women do not have access to the same resources and opportunities as their male counterparts. As surveyed globally, more than 58% of men have access to internet, compared to less than 48% of women. Many women, including those in Europe and North America, are unable to access services because they are either expensive or severely limited in rural or underserved areas. The difference is much starker in developing countries. In Africa, for example, only 34% of women have access to the internet, compared to 45% of men. The disparity is even wider in the Arab world, with 75% of men having a reliable internet connection and only 65% of women having the same. According to ITU data, only 19% of women in least developed countries used the Internet in 2020, compared to 86% in developed countries in 2019.

Michaela Jamelska on Ai and Gender Equality: Data fed into algorithms can determine its functioning, and thus a gender bias is embedded in AI by those who design the systems. So, whatever data is provided or consumed by the Ai systems, they will use them, pick up on patterns, and often even amplify them. One of the recent problems with consumed data was that AI was trained with a unimodal system, meaning it was trained to a very specific task (such as processing images which happened to be one of the underlying problems of AI being biased). Only recently, many of these algorithms have been trained with the so-called multimodal system. While these systems have been previously used for research, they’re becoming more commercial. It’s the same for humans who process data through various sources; new AI algorithm training will also have multiple sources, so there is no lack of context when processing data, allowing them to integrate different modalities and synthesize them.

Michaela Jamelska on the innovative 5G trial to boost business : A project led by the West of England Combined Authority (WECA). 5G products and services will be developed to support operations at Bristol Port, demonstrating a smart and dynamic smart port environment. The initiative will focus on security, traceability, and tracking of goods within and across extendable virtual boundaries. Mission is concentrated on the development of two different use cases: 1) The deployment of 5G enabled autonomous drones for security and surveillance; 2) Drone-based traceability and real-time tracking of goods combining both public and private networks, in close cooperation with the University of Bristol. Moreover, 5G LOGISTICS project will demonstrate how 5G private network capabilities can improve the efficiency and productivity of the logistics sector. By testing the potential of 5G in a port scenario, the West of England Combined Authority is driving innovations that could bring economic benefits to the region and beyond. The outcome would bring an innovative way to support businesses and communities creating a connected and sustainable future for the region.

In the real world, our human rights include the right to life and liberty, freedom from slavery and torture, freedom of opinion and expression, the right to work and education, and many more. Everyone is entitled to these rights, without discrimination. (Source UN) One of the differences, however, one may argue, is that when you are tortured in real life, it is not quite the same as your avatar being tortured in virtual reality. Therefore, what would be a responsibility for such an action in the virtual world? Right now, the punishments for abuses in the virtual world are still limited. But if avatars are extensions of our own identity in the virtual world as they are meant to be, it would mean that our avatars should be protected from tortures of other avatars, they must not be discriminated, they should be allowed to express their opinions among other rights. Similarly, abusers should be held accountable for their actions. There is not, yet, a full framework developed to grant us all rights and impose punishments for such actions. Large corporations are often criticized for caring mainly about engagement rates and users spending the time on their platform. However, even those large corporations are created by humans who have human rights and hopefully together with the public they push forward for the need to create a framework which will safeguard our avatar – human rights. Finally, a metaverse is just a tool, and we are all equally responsible for building a human rights centric future.

From 10 to 12 September, Unmanned Life team will attend 5G Asia where 5G core issues will be discussed to go beyond the hype around 5G. Discussions around concrete solutions, real business opportunities and major technology advancements will be at the centre of this event, in particular 5G commercialization, 5G RAN evolution, Spectrum and Standard, Network Evolution, 5G Automation and Virtualization and the 5G cloud. It is without say that Unmanned Life´s Autonomy-as-a-Service AI software platform will be at the heart of these 5G discussions by showing how concretely autonomous solutions will be enabled by 5G.

Michaela Jamelska on the future of Air Mobility in Europe: The GOF2.0 Integrated Urban Airspace VLD (GOF2.0) very large demonstration project will safely, securely, and sustainably demonstrate operational validity of serving combined UAS, eVTOL and manned operations in a unified, dense urban airspace using current ATM and U-space services and systems. The demonstrations focus on validation of the GOF 2.0 architecture for highly automated real-time separation assurance in dense air space including precision weather and telecom networks for air-ground communication and will significantly contribute to understanding how the safe integration of UAM and other commercial drone operations into ATM Airspace without degrading safety, security or disrupting current airspace operations can be implemented.

Virtuality could offer us a world with fewer major social issues such as inequality and discrimination, among others. One might argue that this is a naive idea since in the simple online world we currently inhabit, we have so much hate speech, cyberbullying, and fraud. Indeed, even in Hobbes’s philosophy, humans are like machines that pursue their own self-interests mechanically. Confucius and Mencius thought that human nature is essentially good, while Hsün Tzu considered it essentially evil. John Locke, on the other hand, described the human mind as a ‘tabula rasa’ (blank slate). While no universal truth exists about what our human nature is and how it will be replicated into new worlds which are about to be created, I bet most people would like to live in a world of less pain and more possibilities to realize their potential. If society rejects changing what is currently slowing us, we will experience no growth or progress.