Members of the House of Lords Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence are warning that large companies operating in the UK with control over vast quantities of data “must be prevented from becoming overly powerful.”

An inquiry by the Parliamentary Committee has concluded that the UK is in a strong position to be among a world leader world in the development of artificial intelligence during the 21^st century which, coupled with the wider adoption of AI, could deliver a major boost to the economy for years to come.

However, the report on Artificial Intelligence, AI in the UK: ready, willing and able?, concludes that the best way to do this is to put ethics at the centre of AI’s development and use.

The peers say that access to large quantities of data is one of the factors fuelling the current AI boom, commenting :

“We have heard considerable evidence that the ways in which data is gathered and accessed needs to change, so that innovative companies, big and small, as well as academia, have fair and reasonable access to data, while citizens and consumers can protect their privacy and personal agency in this rapidly evolving world.”

The Committee says this means not only using established concepts, such as open data and data protection legislation, but also the development of new frameworks and mechanisms, such as data portability and data trusts.

The report warns that “large companies which have control over vast quantities of data must be prevented from becoming overly powerful within this landscape. “

The Committee is calling on the Government, with the Competition and Markets Authority, to review proactively the use and potential monopolisation of data by big technology companies operating in the UK.

The UK must seek to actively shape AI’s development and utilisation, or “risk passively acquiescing to its many likely consequences. “, the report says.

The peers believe that while existing regulators are best placed to regulate AI in their respective sectors, they must be provided with adequate resources and powers to do so.

They have proposed five principles that could become the basis for a shared ethical AI framework.

Cross-sector shared ethical AI framework should be established

One of the recommendations of the report is for a cross-sector AI Code to be established which could be adopted both nationally and internationally. The Committee’s suggested five principles for the proposed code are:

• Artificial intelligence should be developed for the common good and benefit of humanity.
• Artificial intelligence should operate on principles of intelligibility and fairness.
• Artificial intelligence should not be used to diminish the data rights or privacy of individuals, families or communities.
• All citizens should have the right to be educated to enable them to flourish mentally, emotionally and economically alongside artificial intelligence.
• The autonomous power to hurt, destroy or deceive human beings should never be vested in artificial intelligence.

In their view, while AI-specific regulation is not appropriate at this stage, a framework would provide clarity in the short term, and could underpin regulation, if this proved to be necessary.

Recommendations included in the report

Other conclusions from the report include:

• Significant Government investment in skills and training will be necessary to mitigate the negative effects of AI - retraining will become a lifelong necessity.
• Individuals need to be able to have greater personal control over their data, and the way in which it is used. The ways in which data is gathered and accessed needs to change, so that everyone can have fair and reasonable access to data. This means using established concepts, such as open data, ethics advisory boards and data protection legislation, and developing new frameworks and mechanisms, such as data portability and data trusts.
• The monopolisation of data by big technology companies must be avoided, and greater competition is required. The Government, with the Competition and Markets Authority, must review the use of data by large technology companies operating in the UK.
• The prejudices of the past must not be unwittingly built into automated systems. The Government should incentivise the development of new approaches to the auditing of datasets used in AI, and also to encourage greater diversity in the training and recruitment of AI specialists.
• Transparency in AI is needed. The industry, through the AI Council, should establish a voluntary mechanism to inform consumers when AI is being used to make significant or sensitive decisions.
• The Government should be bold and use targeted procurement to provide a boost to AI development and deployment. It could encourage the development of solutions to public policy challenges through speculative investment.
• It is not currently clear whether existing liability law will be sufficient when AI systems malfunction or cause harm to users, and clarity in this area is needed. The Law Commission should investigate this issue.
• The Government needs to draw up a national policy framework, in lockstep with the Industrial Strategy, to ensure the coordination and successful delivery of AI policy in the UK.

Need for global summit and closer collaboration with other leading AI countries

The report says there is an opportunity for the UK to shape the development and use of AI worldwide and that the UK could lead by example in the international community by establishing the principles.

The Committee is recommending that the Government work with Government-sponsored AI organisations in other leading AI countries to convene a global summit to establish international norms for the design, development, regulation and deployment of artificial intelligence.

The report also calls on the UK to develop closer relationships with other national centres for artificial intelligence research, including Canada’s three major centres for artificial intelligence in Edmonton, Montreal and Toronto-Waterloo and the German Research Center for AI (DFKI).

There is “much potential” for the Alan Turing Institute – the UK’s national institute for data science and artificial intelligence- to learn from the experiences of other national centres for AI. The Committee is urging the Institute to develop a relationship with the new centres being established in Canada, and elsewhere.

The Turing Institute has welcomed the report, describing it as an important contribution to current thinking at a critical point in the evolution of AI:

“The report puts an ethical approach to artificial intelligence at the centre of its recommendations and outlines a convincing roadmap for how we can steer research, innovation and regulation in a way that delivers economic benefits, while safeguarding societal values.”

The UK has a unique opportunity to shape AI positively for the public’s benefit and to lead the international community in AI’s ethical development, rather than passively accept its consequences.

Launching the report, the Chairman of the Committee, Lord Clement-Jones, said:

Unique opportunity for UK to shape AI positively rather than passively accept its consequences

“The UK contains leading AI companies, a dynamic academic research culture, and a vigorous start-up ecosystem as well as a host of legal, ethical, financial and linguistic strengths. We should make the most of this environment, but it is essential that ethics take centre stage in AI’s development and use.

“We want to make sure that this country remains a cutting-edge place to research and develop this exciting technology. However, start-ups can struggle to scale up on their own. Our recommendations for a growth fund for SMEs and changes to the immigration system will help to do this.”

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