In 2021 CAIDG is launching a major research initiative focusing on the concept of digital self-determination. The concept of digital self-determination is spearheaded by the Directorate of International Law of the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs in cooperation with the Office for Communications of the Swiss Federal Department of Environment Transport, Energy and Communications. Our work on COVID control throughout 2020 highlighted among many other important findings, that citizen inclusion and trust are crucial variables in the efficacy of surveillance technology. Along with the recurrent realisation that individuals and their communities want and need to participate in AI-assisted social control, the debates about autonomy and communal responsibility in the context of the global pandemic opened up a pressing necessity to re-imagine the ‘self’ in the digital space.

Not only with our COVID work, but across almost every aspect of the Centre’s research mission, the relevance of digital self-determination is opening up exciting pathways of enquiry. Currently we are exploring the foundations of digital self-determination, its theoretical bases, its language, and the manner in which it can challenge understandings of constitutional legality, and data sovereignty. Put simply digital self-determination offers a unique way of understanding where we live in the digital space, how we manage our social media environments, our interaction with AI technology, how we access and operate our personal data, and ways in which we can have a say about mass data sharing. As our urban life-spaces transit into smart cities the constant interaction between individuals, their communities and AI technology is inevitable and all-encompassing. We need to be working now on ways to ensure our digital self-determination so that ‘humans in the loop’ is not just a catch-phrase but as lived experience.

In collaboration with top-tier research partners, CAIDG is planning to make a major contribution to this research and policy field world-wide. CAIDG’s Digital Self-Determination project, building on its collaboration with the Government of Switzerland on digital self-determination, releases significant publications on the topic, organise interesting events and public engagement where you can join in the discussion, and propose opportunities for other researchers to cross-fertilise and offering policy planners in a vast array of digital environments the benefits of digital self-determination.