ABOUT THE FORUM
The Forum of the European Minority Regions aims to provide regional authorities with a platform to highlight their minorities – not only to exchange best practices but also to raise awareness of challenges and instances of discrimination. At the same time, it consistently emphasises the undeniable economic benefits that minorities bring, benefiting individuals, businesses, local communities, regions, countries, and the entire Europe. Investing in minorities yields significant returns, as the economic contributions they generate through trade and investment far exceed the costs. At each forum, experts in the field highlight the added value of minorities and their languages in key areas such as tourism, the labour market, digitalisation, cross-border cooperation and, this year, Artificial Intelligence.
Why is it important to organise a Forum on the challenges and opportunities that AI pose to minorities?
AI has the potential to reduce barriers and create new opportunities for minorities, but without careful design and oversight it can also reinforce existing inequalities.
AI systems learn from historical data. If that data reflects past discrimination, then AI may reproduce or even amplify those biases. Examples have appeared in hiring, lending, facial recognition, and criminal justice applications. Mistakes made by AI systems can disproportionately affect minorities if the systems perform less accurately for certain groupsIf minority groups are not adequately represented in the data used to train AI models, their experiences, languages, accents, or cultural perspectives may be overlooked.
Automation may affect some occupations more than others. If minority communities are concentrated in jobs that become automated, they could experience greater economic disruption unless retraining opportunities are available. There are also privacy and surveillance concerns.
AI can create both opportunities and challenges for minorities because it can expand access to resources and opportunities while also potentially reinforcing existing inequalities.
Perhaps the most important opportunity is a greater access to education and information. AI-powered tools can help people access tutoring, translation, literacy support, and career guidance at low cost. This can benefit communities that have historically faced barriers to educational resources.
Artificial Intelligence improves accessibility. AI technologies such as speech recognition, text-to-speech systems, and real-time translation can help people overcome language and communication barriers. This may particularly benefit linguistic minorities.
When it comes to proving the economic added value of minorities, which is the aim of the Forum of the European Minority Regions,. AI can create new jobs, support entrepreneurship, and help small businesses reach broader markets. Minority-owned businesses may use AI tools for marketing, customer service, and productivity without needing large budgets. For particularly smaller minorities AI can provide better public services. When designed well, AI can help governments and organisations identify gaps in healthcare, education, transportation, and social services, potentially improving support for underserved communities. AI can increase representation.
The impact of AI is not inherently positive nor negative for minorities. It depends on factors such as the quality and diversity of the training data, and whether developers test systems for fairness and bias.
It is also important how governments regulate AI. Whether minority communities are included in the design and deployment of AI systems. Government policies are crucial in this respect.
This years’ Forum on the European Minority Regions will be more interactive than previous fora. During the long lunch break the participants will be able to try out AI gadgets, games and projects of different organisations, educational institutions and companies. Participants will be able to experience the different projects they hear about during the conference.
First draft programme
Venue: Grossratssaal Kanton Graubünden, Hochbauamt, Ringstrasse 10, 7001 Chur, Tel. +41 81 257 36 42
| 9:00 - 9:30 | Welcome by the organisers: |
| 9:30 - 10:00 | Introduction to minorities and artificial intelligence. |
| 10:00 - 10:45 | Brief presentation of the minorities in the Grisons |
| 10:45 - 13:00 | How companies promote regional and minority languages with artificial intelligence. Moderator: Ms Ladina Schena |
| 13:00 - 15:00 | Lunch with an exhibition of different AI gadgets. Ines Honegger and Ms Fiorenza Lanfranchi will demonstrate the Viaggio student game. |
| 15:00 - 16:00 | How different regions use artificial intelligence to promote their languages. Moderator: Dr Mathias Stuflesser, Director of the Department or Ladin Education and School Administration, Autonomous Province of South Tyrol Shane Moynihan, Member of the Irish Parliament and chairperson, Joint Committee on the Irish Language, the Gaeltacht and the Irish-Speaking Community. (tbc) |
| 15:30 - 16:00 | Coffee break |
| 16:00 - 17:00 | Greeting by the president of the Canton, the Grisons Mr Martin Bühler. (tbc) |
| 16:01 - 17:00 | How artificial languages can be an opportunity for minority language communities Attila Racz, one of the leaders of the IT cluster from Szeklerland. Moderator to be confirmed. |
| 17:00 - 17:30 | Conclusions of the first day |
| 19:00 | Dinner |
