Independent watchdog key to monitor artificial intelligence Geoff Maslen 01 June 2019 Nations that increasingly use artificial intelligence (AI) devices to assist in decision-making should act immediately and adopt'an independent watchdog' to monitor them for possible risks to the public, according to two senior academics in New Zealand. John Zerilli and Colin Gavaghan have called on their government to establish an independent regulator to monitor "and address the risks associated with these digital technologies". "To protect us from the risks of advanced artificial intelligence, we need to act now," say the two Otago University academics. "The public should know what AI systems their government uses as well as how well they perform. Systems should be regularly evaluated and summary results made available to the public in a systematic format."