On 14 October 2024, the Fifth Global Standards Symposium (GSS-24) was held at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi, India, on the eve of the opening of the World Telecommunication Standardisation Assembly 2024 (WTSA-24).
Under the theme ‘Charting the Next Digital Wave: Emerging Technologies, Innovation, and International Standards’, GSS-24 participants discussed how advanced technologies and international standards are impacting humanity's digital future.
Bakhtiyar Nariman oglu Mammadov, Head of the Legal Department of the Ministry of Digital Development and Transport of the Republic of Azerbaijan, and Alexey Borodin, Director General of the Regional Commonwealth in the Field of Communications, acted in their personal capacity as members of the GSS-24 Steering Committee, which was responsible for shaping the programme of the event and its output document.
The event featured a high-level segment headlined ‘Catalyzing Change: Industry & Ministerial Leaders Crafting the Future of Innovation’, where high-level digital ministries, CEOs of industry leaders, mayors and heads of academic organisations exchanged views on how to shape the future of innovation and the importance of navigating transformative global change, as well as discussed approaches to regulating and using emerging technologies including
The following representatives of RCC Communications Administrations made presentations during the high-level segment:
- Deputy Minister of Digital Development and Transport of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Shahin Babayev
- Deputy Minister, Ministry of Digital Technologies, Republic of Uzbekistan, Jamol Maksudov
- Deputy Minister, High-tech Industry of the Republic of Armenia, Republic of Armenia, Gevorg Meliksetyan
GSS-24 hosted the first segment of the International AI Standards Summit, during which experts and panellists exchanged ideas on the role of international standards in shaping the future of AI, strengthening global AI cooperation and ensuring its meaningful impact on the industry. Subsequent segments of the Summit will be held during WTSA-24 events between now and 18 October 2024. The Summits are planned to be held on an annual basis in response to the call from the global community, the G20 and the UN High Level Advisory Body on AI for comprehensive and effective AI standards.
Four thematic sessions were also held within the framework of GSS-24, during which experts from relevant fields of knowledge presented their vision on the GSS-24 topics:
Session 1. Interconnected futures: Open source and Standards
This session provided expert views on how open source and international standards intersect, and on the challenges and prospects for working on these two important future pillars of technology development.
Session 2. U4SSC KPI
The session brought together and exchanged views of mayors and representatives of city governments that have successfully implemented the Unite for Smart Sustainable Cities (U4SSC) KPIs based on ITU-T Recommendation Y.4903.
Dmitry Ontoev, Advisor to the Minister of the Government of Moscow and the Head of the Department of Information Technologies of Moscow (Russian Federation), took part in the discussion.
Session 3. Fostering public services & industry innovation – How AI and metaverse are reshaping our world
The panel of experts and industry opinion leaders discussed how emerging technologies such as AI, robotics and meta-universe are converging and how they can revolutionise critical areas such as public services, urban planning and smart manufacturing.
One of the speakers of the session was proffessor Andrey Koucheryavy (Russian Federation), Professor of Telecommunication Networks and Data transmission, St. Petersburg University of Telecommunications, whose team of young researchers from his research school (Holnetverse) was among the three strongest in the UN competition ‘Metaverse Think-a-Thon’.
Session 4. Blockchain Secure Authentication (BSA) Application Challenge Ceremony
During the session, the winners of the ITU Blockchain Secure Authentication (BSA) Application Challenge were announced. The ITU BSA Application Challenge aims to promote the use of blockchain-based multi-factor passwordless authentication in digital financial services applications to address vulnerabilities in traditional password-based authentication processes in digital finance. The competition targets developers in developing countries to help develop the skills needed to deploy BSA authentication, demonstrating robust authentication protocols based on blockchain technology.
The symposium concluded with a closing ceremony that summarised the key outcomes of the discussions.