Government Should Remove Barriers to Deploying AI, Report Says – MeriTalk

Government and policy-makers shouldn't put up unnecessary barriers to deploying artificial intelligence (AI) over concern of any perceived risks associated with the technology. Instead, policymakers should encourage innovation while crafting targeted solutions for specific problems if they occur, according to a report by the Information Technology Innovation Foundation, a science and technology policy think tank. There are a vast and diverse array of uses for AI, from rapidly analyzing large amounts of data to detecting abnormalities and patterns in transactions to extracting insights from datasets such as the link between a gene and a disease. AI is a field of computer science devoted to creating computer systems that perform operations characteristic of human intelligence, such as learning and decision making. Policy debates around AI are dividing into two positions: those that want to enable innovation, and those who want to slow or stop it, according to the report "Ten Ways the Precautionary Principle Undermines Progress in Artificial Intelligence." The precautionary principle is the idea that if a technological innovation carries a risk of harming the public or the environment, then those proposing the technology should bear the burden of proving it will not.