UN'gravely alarmed' by deteriorating situation in Sudan's el-Fasher The United Nations secretary-general has called for an immediate ceasefire in Sudan's Darfur region after a deadly drone attack on Friday killed more than 70 worshippers in el-Fasher, expressing "grave" alarm about the "rapidly deteriorating situation". "The fighting must stop now," Antonio Guterres said in a statement issued by his spokesperson on Saturday, urging the warring parties to engage in dialogue and provide humanitarian corridors, with the brutal civil war wracking the nation in its third year. El-Fasher, the capital of the North Darfur region, remains the government-backed Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and its allies' last major stronghold across Darfur. It has been under siege for more than a year by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which launched a renewed offensive to capture the city in recent weeks. Humanitarian organisations have raised alarm about growing hunger in the city as hundreds of thousands of people remain trapped without access to food, medicine and other essentials.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ETHICS AND EDUCATION BY RAFFAELLA AGHEMO, LAWYER DRAFT PAPER FOR CALL4PAPERS 2021 We live in a totally digital age. The pandemic crisis of recent years has exacerbated a type of approach to life that increasingly belongs to the virtual and less and less to the real. In this dimension, which Professor Floridi defines as'onlife', we all come to terms with new realities, increasingly technological and increasingly less'human'. IN THIS DIMENSION, WHICH PROFESSOR FLORIDI This should not frighten us, but we DEFINES AS'ONLIFE', WE must'equip' users to collaborate and ALL COME TO TERMS WITH interface with new beings, no longer NEW REALITIES, made of flesh and bones, but of INCREASINGLY circuits and transistors. All this TECHNOLOGICAL AND progress, which certainly precludes INCREASINGLY LESS what is defined as the fourth'HUMAN'. DAD Every economic and social change, in order to be well understood and EDUCATION integrated into daily dynamics, must pass through the "school desks", which have also been overtaken by DAD systems, distance learning, laptops and devices.

An inclusive design approach that embraces the participation of young users, their parents, and local communities in the life cycle of an Artificial Intelligence project, is critical for children's empowerment and for responsible AI innovation. UNICEF's policy guidance recommends that children should be in a position to use AI products or services, regardless of their age, gender identities, geographic and cultural diversity. When working on the design of AutismVR, a VR and AI-based game that helps parents, educators and siblings empathize and interact with children affected by autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the team at Imìsí 3D conducted interviews and participatory testing sessions involving children with ASD and their caregivers. Interestingly, Imìsí 3D followed experts' recommended methods for engagement, such as using a communication partner, often a parent, as a proxy to elicit feedback from children with ASD. Building on this inclusive process, improvements were made to the game to better raise awareness about neurodiversity and prevent discrimination, gender stigma, or other prejudices.

An inclusive design approach that embraces the participation of young users, their parents, and local communities in the life cycle of an Artificial Intelligence project, is critical for children's empowerment and for responsible AI innovation. If children are going to interact with AI systems, for instance by sharing their stories and emotions with a companion robot, their perspectives and preferences must be included in the design process, so that the AI application not only fits their needs but respect their rights. Furthermore, the inclusion of children, their guardians, and other relevant local actors can help ensure that AI systems are fair and non-discriminatory. UNICEF's policy guidance recommends that children should be in a position to use AI products or services, regardless of their age, gender identities, geographic and cultural diversity. Furthermore, most national AI strategies and major ethical guidelines make only cursory mention of children and their specific needs.

Artificial intelligence has been used in products targeting children for several years, but legislation protecting them from the potential impacts of the technology is still in its infancy. Ahead of a global forum on AI for children, UN News spoke to two UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) experts about the need for improved policy protection. Children are already interacting with AI technologies in many different ways: they are embedded in toys, virtual assistants, video games, and adaptive learning software. Their impact on children's lives is profound, yet UNICEF found that, when it comes to AI policies and practices, children's rights are an afterthought, at best. In response, the UN children's agency has developed draft Policy Guidance on AI for Children to promote children's rights, and raise awareness of how AI systems can uphold or undermine these rights.

As part of our AI for children project, UNICEF has developed this policy guidance to promote children's rights in government and private sector AI policies and practices, and to raise awareness of how AI systems can uphold or undermine these rights. The policy guidance explores AI systems, and considers the ways in which they impact children. To see how the guidance has been applied in practice, read about the eight case studies. Artificial intelligence (AI) is about so much more than self-driving cars and intelligent assistants on your phone. AI systems are increasingly being used by governments and the private sector to, for example, improve the provision of education, healthcare and welfare services.

This ongoing work attempts to understand and address the requirements of UNICEF, a leading organization working in children's welfare, where they aim to tackle the problem of air quality for children at a global level. We are motivated by the lack of a proper model to account for heavily fluctuating air quality levels across the world in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to uncertainty among public health professionals on the exact levels of children's exposure to air pollutants. We create an initial model as per the agency's requirement to generate insights through a combination of virtual meetups and online presentations. Our research team comprised of UNICEF's researchers and a group of volunteer data scientists. The presentations were delivered to a number of scientists and domain experts from UNICEF and community champions working with open data. We highlight their feedback and possible avenues to develop this research further.

Aspen is disappointed as he replies, "I don't want to go to bed" and looks pleadingly at his dad. His dad shrugs and says it's not up to him. The virtual voice persists: "I need you to cooperate" and starts counting down from 10. By six, Aspen gives in and retires to his room. Aspen's father then explains to his guests how the virtual assistant, Lady, has helped him'disrupt fatherhood', where he gets to be the good cop, and the Lady gets all the bad rap.

Over the course of 2020, UNICEF hosted a series of global consultations with adolescents to learn about their views and knowledge of the artificial intelligence (AI) systems playing an increasingly important role in their lives. We spoke with 245 young people from Brazil, Chile, South Africa, Sweden and the United States in a series of workshops. These young voices helped shape UNICEF's recent draft Policy Guidance on AI for Children, which includes recommendations for child-centred AI and is aimed at governments and businesses. The workshops were part of a broader AI for Children Project led by the UNICEF Office of Global Insight and Policy.

In simple terms, Open Data means the kind of data which is open for anyone and everyone for access, modification, reuse, and sharing. Open Data derives its base from various "open movements" such as open source, open hardware, open government, open science etc. Governments, independent organizations, and agencies have come forward to open the floodgates of data to create more and more open data for free and easy access. Open data is important because the world has grown increasingly data-driven. But if there are restrictions on the access and use of data, the idea of data-driven business and governance will not be materialized. Therefore, open data has its own unique place. It can allow a fuller understanding of the global problems and universal issues. It can give a big boost to businesses. It can be a great impetus for machine learning.