UK tech committee: It's time to lay down the law on AI accountability

A UK parliamentary committee has appealed the UK government to take action and begin seriously considering "a host of social, ethical and legal questions" that are increasingly pertinent thanks to the rise of artificial intelligence. The science and technology committee started its inquiry in March 2016, visiting Google's DeepMind office, gathering 67 written statements, and interviewing 12 witnesses in person in order to establish the most urgent issues. In its newly published report, the committee has concluded that "while it is too soon to set down sector-wide regulations for this nascent field, it is vital that careful scrutiny of the ethical, legal and societal dimensions of artificially intelligent systems begins now." The biggest reason for this is the need to ensure that the UK is building socially beneficial AI systems, and one of the best ways to make this happen is to start a wider public dialogue on the issue. There are three main issues that the committee flags up as requiring "serious" consideration: minimizing bias being accidentally built into AI systems; ensuring that the decisions they make are transparent; and establishing ways to verify that AI systems are operating as intended and won't behave unpredictably. In these early stages, the committee advises in its report that the government creates a standing Commission on Artificial Intelligence with a broad membership that is able to provide a wide range of expertise.