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The European Parliament has passed the world’s first AI law.
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This is a problem that governments around the world are currently grappling with. How can we mitigate the potential harm of artificial intelligence without hindering its potential benefits?
Well, the European Union has taken its first step into this vast unknown with the world’s first “AI law” approved by the European Parliament last month. This is a bill aimed at forming a global standard for AI regulation.
Nero Cristiannini, professor of artificial intelligence at the University of Bath, told Stuff’s daily podcast Newsable that the bill has been long overdue.
What are your thoughts on this bill?
“It was pretty hard. It started quite a few years ago, but the fine line was you want to use artificial intelligence safely, but you don’t want to stifle innovation.
“This is a difficult line to draw, and different countries will do it differently. In Europe, it was decided not to regulate AI per se, but to regulate different uses of AI. Games might allow it, but banks might heavily regulate it, and that’s the basic idea.”
“We divide the different applications of artificial intelligence into levels of risk. It’s just that if you try to recognize people’s faces in real time, it’s an unacceptable risk and it’s not allowed in Europe.”
AI is often seen in terms of threatening human survival if it gets out of hand. You have no such views. You compare worrying about it to worrying about an asteroid hitting the Earth, and while it is possible, you argue that the more immediate threat is pollution. Can you elaborate on that?
“That’s exactly my concern. When I go to bed at night, I don’t wake up because it’s at risk of extinction, but young people are spending time in front of recommender engines, which means watching videos and news from apps.” I am very concerned about what I am getting.
“I don’t know if anyone has properly studied how such an algorithm affects the minds of young people. So it’s kind of a non-theoretical risk.
“There are billions of people, for example YouTube has 3 billion active users. Many of them are young children who are learning about the world through these tools. It’s built to quickly learn what factors to click on, and I don’t blame any company, but I think there’s something here to study in the present, not the future, and we think this is what society should be doing. You have to understand the impact, and that’s important.”
How big an issue is this internationally?
“I think the pioneers can set the standard.
“Other countries will have very different interests. For example, in the United States, companies will probably have different priorities. Perhaps in China, the relationship between the state and personal data will be different.
“It is a matter of establishing the values of the European way of thinking. It was decided in parliament that it was important.
“But I know it’s just one point of view, and I’m not saying everyone should have the same values.”
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Advances in artificial intelligence have further warned experts, along with science writer Tom Chivers, that AI’s goals may not necessarily be compatible with human survival.
