New Podcast Episode – ELSI Dialogues: Artificial Intelligence in South-Eastern Asia – The Indonesian National Artificial Intelligence Strategy on Ethics and Policy

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“AI systems need to be human centric, they should serve humanity and the common good”

Episode 26 takes you to a webinar on developing strategies for a trustworthy AI explored at the example of South-eastern Asia. After a quick introduction on how the European Union approaches this challenge, Thilma Komaling, one of the authors of Indonesia’s strategy on Artificial Intelligence, takes you her home country where AI-assisted tools already help to improve broad access to health care.

Thilma shares her more than 20 years of experience in policy development here in this webinar organised by the BBMRI-ERIC ELSI team. ELSI specialises in addressing ethical, legal and societal implications of biobanking and the responsible use of sensitive data and new technologies.

The transformative potential of AI will not stop at national borders and so we can all profit from exchanging our experiences to use this technology for the best of society. Together with Thilma, Ilaria Colussi, one of BBMRI-ERIC’s legal experts, explores the common ground between the EU’s and Indonesia’s approach to a trustworthy AI.

“We need something very close to to the heart of the people of Indonesia, because this is something that needs to be originally from Indonesia. What we believe and what we want to carry forward as a nation.”

Indondesia explores a strategy that builds on the country’s core values to find a human-centered approach to responsibly integrate this highly transformative technology into the daily live. One example is Halodoc, an AI-assisted app, that allows Indonesia’s citizens access to health-related advise and information even in the remotest areas of the large, archipelagic country with its hundreds of languages.

BBMRI-ERIC Podcast

Meet Dr. Ángel Álvarez-Prado, principal investigator at the Translational Cancer Immunogenomics Lab at the Luxembourg Institute of Health. His journey took him from a curious child and self-described “computer nerd” to the head of his own laboratory, dedicated to advancing cancer treatment. Ángel first crossed paths with BBMRI-ERIC in 2023 while working as a postdoctoral fellow at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research at the University of Lausanne. He was selected to participate in the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting, an annual event where young scientists have the rare opportunity to engage with Nobel Laureates and explore breakthroughs in their fields.

BBMRI-ERIC sponsored Ángel’s participation and the experience helped spark his motivation to become independent and establish his own translational research lab. Later, as his dream of building a lab began to take shape, Ángel started analysing clinical samples and BBMRI-ERIC played a key role by helping him identify suitable collections for his research and by streamlining access to them.

In today’s episode, Angel shares his research, his vision for personalised cancer therapies and offers advice to aspiring scientists considering a career in research.

Further reading:

Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting: https://www.lindau-nobel.org/

BBMRI Podcast: https://www.bbmri-eric.eu/bbmri-eric/bbmri-eric-podcast/