{"id":303,"date":"2016-11-14T11:24:33","date_gmt":"2016-11-14T09:24:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aireligion.org\/?p=303"},"modified":"2016-11-14T11:24:33","modified_gmt":"2016-11-14T09:24:33","slug":"uk-chief-scientist-ai-poses-new-questions-about-ethics-and-governance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aireligion.org\/?p=303","title":{"rendered":"UK chief scientist: &#8216;AI poses new questions about ethics and governance&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/static4.businessinsider.com\/image\/58258a0cdd0895583a8b477a-1440\/mark%20walport.jpg\" width=\"375\" height=\"281\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The government has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/uploads\/system\/uploads\/attachment_data\/file\/566075\/gs-16-19-artificial-intelligence-ai-report.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">released a report<\/a> highlighting some of the benefits\u00a0and challenges that are likely to come about as a result of advances\u00a0in artificial intelligence being made by companies like Google, DeepMind, and Facebook.<\/p>\n<p>Written by Chief Scientific Adviser Sir Mark Walport and published on Thursday, the report provides an overview of where we&#8217;re at with AI before going on to highlight how it has the potential to fuel\u00a0innovation and improve government services.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0report \u2014 titled &#8220;Artificial intelligence: opportunities and implications for the future of decision making&#8221; \u2014 also looks at how government should &#8220;manage and mitigate&#8221; any negative effects that may be brought about as a result of AI.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It is important to recognise that, alongside the huge benefits that artificial intelligence offers, there are potential ethical issues associated with some uses,&#8221; Walport writes. &#8220;Many experts feel that government has a role to play in managing and mitigating any risks that might arise.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Walport also wants to open up the conversation on AI to ensure that scientists in the field gain public trust.\u00a0&#8220;Public trust is a vital condition for artificial intelligence to be used productively,&#8221; he writes.<\/p>\n<p>He believes that this can be achieved\u00a0by introducing what he describes as &#8220;effective oversight.&#8221;\u00a0Walport adds: &#8220;Effective oversight will contribute to demonstrating trustworthiness. But at its core, trust is built through public dialogue.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"KonaFilter image-container display-table float_left image on-image\" data-post-image=\"\"><img src=\"http:\/\/static4.businessinsider.com\/image\/575162c8dd089527248b4649-1594\/die_zukunft_des_menschen_srf_schwerpunkt_roboter_wie_wir@1x.jpg\" alt=\"Nick Bostrom\" data-mce-source=\"SRF\" data-mce-caption=\"University of Oxford philosopher Nick Bostrom.\" data-link=\"http:\/\/www.srf.ch\/sendungen\/sternstunde-philosophie\/die-zukunft-des-menschen-srf-schwerpunkt-roboter-wie-wir\" \/><span class=\"caption-source\"><span class=\"caption\">University of Oxford philosopher Nick Bostrom.<\/span> <span class=\"source\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.srf.ch\/sendungen\/sternstunde-philosophie\/die-zukunft-des-menschen-srf-schwerpunkt-roboter-wie-wir\">SRF<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Self-thinking machines have come a long way over the last couple of decades as\u00a0computer chips have become more powerful, enabling them to process larger quantities of data and learn from that data.<\/p>\n<p>Philosophers such as Nick Bostrom and scientists like Stephen Hawking have raised concerns that highly intelligent\u00a0computers could pose a serious threat to humanity if they&#8217;re not developed in the right way.<\/p>\n<p>Companies like DeepMind and Facebook openly publish significant quantities of AI research that is carried out by their employees. However, firms like Apple and Amazon, which\u00a0are also trying to make advances in the field, remain relatively secretive about the AI work they&#8217;re doing.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/uk-chief-scientist-ai-also-poses-new-questions-about-ethics-and-governance-2016-11?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A%20typepad\/alleyinsider\/silicon_alley_insider%20%28Silicon%20Alley%20Insider%29\">Insider.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The government has released a report highlighting some of the benefits\u00a0and challenges that are likely to come about as a result of advances\u00a0in artificial intelligence being made by companies like Google, DeepMind, and Facebook. Written by Chief Scientific Adviser Sir Mark Walport and published on Thursday, the report provides an overview of where we&#8217;re at &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/aireligion.org\/?p=303\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">UK chief scientist: &#8216;AI poses new questions about ethics and governance&#8217;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aireligion.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aireligion.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aireligion.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aireligion.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aireligion.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=303"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/aireligion.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":304,"href":"https:\/\/aireligion.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303\/revisions\/304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aireligion.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aireligion.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aireligion.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}