'The AI body snatchers have already taken over'

Until rules and guidelines are written that govern how artificial intelligence software makes decisions, there will be grave risks to using it, including utter ineffectiveness, warns Nicolas Economou of The Future Society. The society is a nonprofit that began at the Harvard Kennedy School, and Economou is the founder of the society's Science, Law and Society Initiative, an international forum that works on AI governance and policy to ensure that humanity reaps the benefits of AI while mitigating its risks. Economou, who is also the CEO of the legal tech company H5, participated last week in a Global Governance of AI Roundtable in Dubai, at which policymakers crafted recommendations and began creating a road map for global cooperation on setting standards. Participants included execs from global tech companies including Microsoft and Facebook, as well as representatives from government and academia. Economou discussed the kinds of issues he and others raised at the roundtable. He urges that careful work be done to vet AI technology for accuracy and fairness and that a methodical, multidisciplinary approach be taken to establish a legal and moral framework for the powerful technology.