'Sense of urgency' as top tech players seek AI ethical rules

GENEVA – Top players in global tech companies kicked off work Monday to draw up global ethical standards related to data and artificial intelligence, with Microsoft's president voicing a "sense of urgency. Some two dozen high-ranking representatives of the global and Swiss economies, as well as scientists and academics, met in Geneva for the first Swiss Global Digital Summit aimed at seeking agreement on ethical guidelines to steer technological development. The participants, including the heads of Credit Suisse, UBS and Adecco, and high-level representatives from Facebook, Google, Huawei and IBM, are due to meet again at the World Economic Forum in Davos next January. There, they will launch the Swiss Digital Initiative (SDI) and present a list of concrete projects, which could include things like the development of a "transparency label" or a "label. After the signing ceremony in Davos, "we are really going to go into practice, into implementation of concrete projects, and that is the proof of the pudding," former Swiss president Doris Leuthard, who will head SDI, told reporters.