German firm's 7 commandments for ethical AI

Frankfurt am Main (AFP) - German business software giant SAP published Tuesday an ethics code to govern its research into artificial intelligence (AI), aiming to prevent the technology infringing on people's rights, displacing workers or inheriting biases from its human designers. "SAP designed these guiding principles to steer the development and deployment of our AI software to help the world run better and improve people's lives," the firm said in a statement. Following in the footsteps of better-known US tech giants like Google and Microsoft, SAP -- which makes software for some 400,000 firms worldwide to manage data on customer relationships, payrolls or inventory -- is wrestling with how to impose values on AI's systems of algorithms designed to ape certain aspects of human intelligence. Public figures like entrepreneur Elon Musk or physicist Stephen Hawking have warned of the dangers of out-of-control AI. "The danger of AI is much greater than the danger of nuclear warheads by a lot," Musk said at a technology conference earlier this year. But rather than a scenario like those depicted in modern classics like "The Terminator" or "The Matrix" of computer programmes running amok over their human creators, SAP's concerns are closer to home.