On any given day, tens of millions of people find themselves trapped in instances of modern slavery. The Computing Community Consortium (CCC) is organizing a visioning workshop, in collaboration with Code 8.7, on March 3-4th, 2020 in Washington, DC that will bring together members of the computing research community along with anti-slavery practitioners and survivors to lay out a research roadmap aimed at applying AI to the fight against human trafficking. Building on the kickoff Code 8.7 conference held at the UN in February 2019, the focus for this event will be to link the ambitious goals outlined in the 20-Year Community Roadmap for AI Research to challenges vital in […]

The following blog post was contributed by Nadya Bliss (Director, the Global Security Initiative at Arizona State University & CCC Council Member) and is reposted from the Delta 8.7 website. You can view the original post here.  Advances in computational science and artificial intelligence offer opportunities to advance Target 8.7 of the Sustainable Development Goals, but the anti-trafficking community must first establish some core building blocks that can serve as the foundation upon which new technologies can be developed and shared. Simply throwing flashy new tech at the problem is neither strategic nor effective. Key components of this foundation include a shared strategy, a common infrastructure that allows for better and […]

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has released a Dear Colleague Letter (DCL) calling for proposals “to the Operations Engineering program into operational methods to discover, disrupt and disable illicit supply networks,” such as those that enable human trafficking and the sale of illegal weapons, drugs, and animals. While this call is lead by the NSF’s Engineering Directorate, proposals will require expertise in social and computational science and the DCL includes NSF’s Directorates for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) and Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE). Related to this fight against illicit supply networks, the Computing Community Consortium (CCC) recently cosponsored the Code 8.7: Using Computation Science and AI to […]

A new episode of the Catalyzing Computing podcast is out now. In this episode Khari Douglas interviews CCC Council Members Dan Lopresti (Lehigh University), Nadya Bliss (Arizona State), and James Cockayne (Centre for Policy Research at UN University) following the Code 8.7: Using Computation Science and AI to End Modern Slavery conference, which was co-sponsored by the Computing Community Consortium (CCC), United Nations University Centre for Policy Research, The Alan Turing Institute, Tech Against Trafficking, University of Nottingham Rights Lab, and Arizona State University Global Security Initiative. Code 8.7 brought together computer science researchers and technologists with policy researchers, law enforcement officials, and activists involved in the fight against human trafficking. Stream the episode below or listen through iTunes | Spotify | Stitcher | Google Play and subscribe […]

On February 19-20, 2019 the Computing Community Consortium (CCC) co-sponsored the Code 8.7: Using Computation Science and AI to End Modern Slavery with the United Nations University Centre for Policy Research, The Alan Turing Institute, Tech Against Trafficking, University of Nottingham Rights Lab, and Arizona State University Global Security Initiative. Code 8.7 brought together computer science researchers and technologists with policy researchers, law enforcement officials, and activists involved in the fight against human trafficking. Code 8.7 was named after Target 8.7 of the Sustainable Development Goals. With Target 8.7, 193 countries agreed to take immediate and effective measures to end forced labor, modern slavery, and human trafficking by 2030, and the worst forms of child […]

The Computing Community Consortium is cohosting Code 8.7: Using Computation Science and AI to End Modern Slavery on February 19-20, 2019 at the United Nations in New York City with the United Nations University Centre for Policy Research, The Alan Turing Institute, Tech Against Trafficking, University of Nottingham Rights Lab, and Arizona State University Global Security Initiative. Code 8.7 is a two-day conference that brings the computational research and artificial intelligence (AI) communities together with those working to achieve Target 8.7 of the Sustainable Development Goals. With Target 8.7, 193 countries agreed to take immediate and effective measures to end forced labour, modern slavery and human trafficking by 2030, and the worst forms of child labour […]