The World Economic Forum (WEF)'s Global Future Council on Human Rights recently issued a white paper to provide a framework for developers to prevent discrimination in the development and application of machine learning (ML). The paper is based on research and interviews with industry experts, academics, human rights professionals and others working at the intersection of machine learning and human rights. The paper proposes a framework based on four guiding principles - active inclusion, fairness, right to understanding, and access to redress - for developers and businesses looking to use machine learning. Artificial intelligence systems based on machine learning are already being used to make decisions which have significant, life-altering impact on people, such as hiring of job applicants, granting loans and releasing prisoners on parole. Machine learning systems can help to eliminate human bias in decision-making, but they can also end up reinforcing and perpetuating systemic bias and discrimination.

Criminal justice – the underlying data used to train an algorithm may be biased, reflecting a history of discrimination.

Mary "Missy" Cummings, Director of the Humans and Autonomy Lab (HAL) at Duke University, and co-chair of the Global Future Council on Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, says the technology will work best in collaboration with humans. While cab drivers may fear for their jobs, she envisages a worldwide shortage of roboticists in 2030. Artificial intelligence and robotics are showing up in every part of life, anywhere from driving, to the cellphones we use, how our data is managed in the world, how our homes are going to be built in the future. So given its ubiquity, it really is important to start addressing the strengths and limitations of artificial intelligence. Tell me about the technological breakthroughs we have already seen, and what you expect to see in the coming years?

Artificial intelligence and robotics are coming into our lives more than ever before and have the potential to transform healthcare, transport, manufacturing, even our domestic chores. Mary "Missy" Cummings, Director of the Humans and Autonomy Lab (HAL) at Duke University, and co-chair of the Global Future Council on Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, says the technology will work best in collaboration with humans. While cab drivers may fear for their jobs, she envisages a worldwide shortage of roboticists in 2030. Artificial intelligence and robotics are showing up in every part of life, anywhere from driving, to the cellphones we use, how our data is managed in the world, how our homes are going to be built in the future. So given its ubiquity, it really is important to start addressing the strengths and limitations of artificial intelligence.