Lords calls for AI ethics code but dismisses need for new regulation

The UK's first major Parliamentary inquiry into Artificial Intelligence has called for a new cross-sector ethics code to ensure that the country becomes a world leader in AI. Lord Clement-Jones, the Chairman of The House of Lords Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence, told Techworld that an ethical approach was essential to ensure public support for AI. "What we want is to make sure that the public is fully trusting in this technology, and you can only do that if they believe it's for the benefit of them and others when they're being applied, and also that it's transparent and unbiased in its application," he said. The proposed "AI Code" could attract public support by creating consistent guidelines for developing and using AI across all organisations and companies in both the public and private sectors. In a report titled AI in the UK: Ready, Willing and Able?, the committee set out five principles to form the basis of the code, which could be adopted internationally: This AI code could provide the basis for future statutory regulation, but the committee stopped short of recommending new regulation specifically for AI at this point.