May to unveil national centre to oversee ethics of AI
THERESA MAY will this week announce plans for the ethical oversight of artificial intelligence (AI) as it is increasingly used to drive cars, diagnose patients and even to help determine prison sentences.
The Prime Minister is expected to use her keynote speech at a summit of world leaders in Davos on Thursday to discuss the opportunities and ethical challenges presented by the rise of AI.
Ministers believe that Britain can become a world leader in the technology. However, there are significant concerns that computer algorithms could end up making critical ethical decisions without human oversight.
Mrs May is expected to announce detailed plans for a National Centre for Data Ethics to provide guidance and consult on the regulation of AI.
Experts have highlighted the example of a self-driving car forced to choose between running over a group of pedestrians or causing a potentially lethal crash in an effort to avoid them.
MPS last week raised concerns that the technology could develop inherent biases against specific groups of people if it is routinely used in recruitment, finance or sentencing.
Jo Swinson, a Liberal Democrat MP, said that in Florida an algorithm used to help set jail sentences by predicting the likelihood of reoffending was almost twice as likely to wrongly flag black defendants as future criminals.
Margot James, the new Digital minister, responded: “We must ensure that these new technologies work for the benefit of everyone: citizens, businesses and wider society.
“We are therefore integrating strong privacy protections and accountability into how automated decisions affect users. A strong, effective regulatory regime is vital. Important decisions on everything from autonomous cars to medical diagnosis and decisions on finance and sentencing – and indeed applications to defence – cannot be delegated solely to algorithms.”
“Dangerous, repetitive or tedious parts of work can now be carried out more quickly, accurately and safely by machines. None the less, human judgment and creativity will still be required to design and manage them.”
One of the great issues of the next 30 years will be the expansion of artificial intelligence (AI) and its impact on the way in which we live. Robots offer opportunities and anxieties – to free people from drudgery while at the same time taking their jobs. We stand on the threshold of a new industrial revolution, which has the potential to enrich mankind just as past upheavals have done. Governments must decide to what extent they encourage this or stand in its way. Above all, we need to know that they are taking this phenomenon seriously and planning for its ramifications.
In Davos, the world’s political and business leaders will fret over whether the loss of millions of jobs could undermine social cohesion. The way states respond to governing and taxing technologies and borderless business will be high on the agenda. Theresa May is proposing to talk about the ethical dimension of AI – by what standards can it operate that are any different to ours? How many deaths on the road are acceptable if driverless cars were to blame? What happens if tax revenues tumble because fewer people are working?
However, there is a danger of too much negative thinking about AI. Automation will markedly improve productivity and free people to learn new skills. The UK, which has an impressive record in inventing new technologies but a poor one in applying them, needs to be in the vanguard of what is often termed the fourth industrial revolution (the fifth if printing is included). Mrs May is right to talk about the ethics of AI, but she must resist the temptation to slow down its advance through inappropriate red tape and burdensome taxation.