WISeKey Invites International Community to Cooperate for the Deployment of a Universal Decentralized Digital Identification for Good during the UN ITU AI for Good Global Summit #AI4Good

WISeKey Invites International Community to Cooperate for the Deployment of a Universal Decentralized Digital Identification for Good during the UN ITU AI for Good Global Summit #AI4Good

GENEVA, Switzerland – WISeKey International Holding Ltd (“WISeKey”, SIX: WIHN), a leading cybersecurity and IoT company, today announced that its Founder and CEO, Carlos Moreira, participated in the “Good Digital Identity” panel organized by the World Economic Forum, during the AI for Good Global Summit (AI4G), scheduled from May 28-31, 2019 at the United Nations (UN) International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.  During his speech, Mr. Moreira alerted participants of the event on the risks associated with the large-scale deployment of the AI for Good initiatives without solving the underline issue related to unsecured digital identities.  Currently over 4 billion people around the world don’t have a digital identity or it is not under their control (https://oiste.org/genevatalks/).

The UN ITU is the oldest UN specialized agency, and for more than 150 years, it has facilitated setting global standards in technology. The UN ITU is the founding host of the AI for Good Global Summit and global meme AI for Good transforming the application of AI into solving humanities’ grandest challenges. WISeKey is an ITU-D Sector Member.

Last year, WISeKey, a pioneer in Digital Identification and Blockchain, unveiled its plan to create Digital Identity Blockchain Platform CertifyID, which is in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals to provide every person on the planet with a Legal Digital Identity by 2030.

Mr. Moreira noted, “For years, we have used digital identities to allow people to vote electronically, secure their financial transactions, access their health records and now we are moving towards a universal use of Digital Identities as more than 1.2 billion people in the world are unable to prove their identity and therefore lack access to vital services including healthcare, social protection, education and finance. The majority of people without a digital identity live in Africa and Asia and more than a third are children who are unregistered.”

To fully reap the benefits of AI for Good and related digitalization technology, all humans must have control of their digital identities and with them be able to quality access to connectivity. Governments shall be committed to the expansion of next-generation smart infrastructure, and establish principles of technological neutrality, through a simplified, market-oriented, and transparent regulatory environment, and through incentives to invest in less profitable areas, as well as by fostering investments for skill and capacity building.

Securing the privacy of every human being is paramount to realizing the full potential of our future. Therefore, Digital Identities and personal data conveyed over the Internet or stored in devices connected to the Internet is owned and solely governed by the individual. It is paramount to protect all citizens in the all-digital age. AI systems should use tools, including anonymized data, de-identification, or aggregation to protect personally identifiable information whenever possible.

Respecting the authority and autonomy of every human being is paramount to realizing the full potential of our future. Therefore, personal digital data will not be used as research, rationale, enticement or commodity by any entity or individual, except with the explicit, well-informed, revocable consent of the individual owner of the data.

Advocating and innovating the greatest good for all humanity is paramount to realizing the full potential of our future. Therefore, technology, no matter how advanced, will never supersede the spiritual purposes or the moral rights and responsibilities of any human being anywhere. Technology will serve humanity’s needs.

“WISeKey is pioneering the way Blockchain and Digital Identity disrupt industries and decentralized Trust. At the heart of this industrial platform is the OISTE-WISeKey Cryptographic RoT which has been actively used since 1999 by over 4 billion desktops, browsers, mobile devices, SSL certificates and IoT devices sharing a universal ledger. The OISTE WISeKey Cryptographic RoT is ubiquitous and universal, and a pioneer in the creation of Digital Identities,” concluded Mr. Moreira.

Blockchain-based solutions aim to override the need for a central authority by distributing information previously held in a centralized repository across a network of participating nodes. While Blockchain is not owned by one individual or organization, anyone with an internet connection (and access, in the case of private Blockchains) can make use of it, help maintain and verify it. When a transaction is made on a Blockchain, it is added to a group of transactions, known as ‘blocks”. Each block of transactions is added to the database in a chronological, immutable chain. Each block is stamped with a unique cryptographic code, which ensures that records are not counterfeited or changed. The Blockchain approach lacks legal validity in most jurisdictions, which only recognize the digital signatures as equally valid that manuscript signatures when generated using traditional PKI technology.

The AI for Good Global Summit is the only AI summit bringing together governments, industry, academia, media, and all 37 United Agencies, ACM and XPRIZE (leader in global challenge prizes) as partners. From its inception in 2017 and now in its 3^rd iteration, it’s the most successful interdisciplinary AI summit with 70+ speakers in 2017, 150+ in 2018 and more than 300 in 2019. The media reach growing from 30 million in 2017 to more than 2 billion in 2019 and influencing the entire world’s population. For 2019, there are more than 150 use cases on how AI can be used for Good, including for all UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

About WISeKey

WISeKey (SIX Swiss Exchange: WIHN) is a leading global cybersecurity company currently deploying large scale digital identity ecosystems for people and objects using Blockchain, AI and IoT respecting the Human as the Fulcrum of the Internet. WISeKey Microprocessors Secures the pervasive computing shaping today’s Internet of Everything. WISeKey IoT has an install base of over 1.5 billion microchips in virtually all IoT sectors (connected cars, smart cities, drones, agricultural sensors, anti-counterfeiting, smart lighting, servers, computers, mobile phones, crypto tokens etc.).  WISeKey is uniquely positioned to be at the edge of IoT as our semiconductors produce a huge amount of Big Data that, when analyzed with Artificial Intelligence (AI), can help industrial applications to predict the failure of their equipment before it happens.

Our technology is Trusted by the OISTE/WISeKey’s Swiss based cryptographic Root of Trust (“RoT”) provides secure authentication and identification, in both physical and virtual environments, for the Internet of Things, Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence. The WISeKey RoT serves as a common trust anchor to ensure the integrity of online transactions among objects and between objects and people. For more information, visit www.wisekey.com.

Press contacts:

Disclaimer:

This communication expressly or implicitly contains certain forward-looking statements concerning WISeKey International Holding Ltd and its business. Such statements involve certain known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which could cause the actual results, financial condition, performance or achievements of WISeKey International Holding Ltd to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. WISeKey International Holding Ltd is providing this communication as of this date and does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements contained herein as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

This press release does not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any securities, and it does not constitute an offering prospectus within the meaning of article 652a or article 1156 of the Swiss Code of Obligations or a listing prospectus within the meaning of the listing rules of the SIX Swiss Exchange. Investors must rely on their own evaluation of WISeKey and its securities, including the merits and risks involved. Nothing contained herein is, or shall be relied on as, a promise or representation as to the future performance of WISeKey.