Ethical, legal framework vital to development of AI: experts

It’s vital to establish artificial intelligence (AI) ethical principles, and countries should work together to address the ethical questions raised by AI technologies, industry representatives said on Monday.

Eventually, no company will claim that it has nothing related to AI, Robin Li Yanhong, CEO of Baidu Inc, said at the opening session of the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC), which runs from Monday to Wednesday in Shanghai.

“A real AI company must have an AI mindset, capability and ethical principles,” Li said.

Having an AI mindset means “we must rethink the company’s corporate strategy based on the Internet of Things,” he noted.

There are many open-source AI platforms at the moment, and a company must develop its own application scenarios based on third-party platforms, Li added.

“Companies will have to adhere to AI ethics. A true AI company is not only technically integrated with AI, it’s also culturally related to AI,” he said.

Ethical principles are being highlighted during the WAIC, as government officials also called for addressing questions related to AI ethics and legal perspectives. “In developing AI education, we attach great importance to fundamental disciplines including anthropology, history and ethics,” Vice Premier Liu He told the conference on Monday.