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Google wants to respond to concerns about artificial intelligence (AI). To this end, it is setting up a global advisory board to address ethical issues surrounding AI. Other emerging techniques are also discussed under this advisory board. In this way, companies that are in the process of developing these should proceed as well and as carefully as possible.

There are several influential parties who are concerned about the application of AI. There’s not much clear line behind this yet. At the moment, companies could, in principle, devise every possible application and build it. This may lead to problems, and Google, as one of the forerunners in the field of AI developments, is aware of this.

AI and ethics

For this reason, Google has set up an advisory board to deal with the ethics surrounding AI developments. The aim is for the Advisory Council to publish a report before the end of 2019. The report is drawn up by a group of people, including experts in the fields of technology, digital ethics and public policy.

During a meeting at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Kent Walker, the senior vice president for global affairs at Google, said that Google would like the group to look at the way in which AI unintentionally discriminates, among other things. For example, it appears that facial recognition software has certain limitations for people of different origins.

Informed conversations

According to Walker, the basis is that we have the best informed and best thought-out conversations. We would like to sit down with the Advisory Council and look at what agenda they want to draw up, and therefore also look at what, according to the Advisory Council, is, and should be, a priority.

The eight-member board, which was also called the Advanced Technology External Advisory Council, includes Joanna Bryson (associate professor of computing at the University of Bath), William J. Burns (former Secretary of State in the United States) and Dyan Gibbens (CEO of Dronestartup Trumbull). The Advisory Council will meet four times, starting in April.

This news article was automatically translated from Dutch to give Techzine.eu a head start. All news articles after September 1, 2019 are written in native English and NOT translated. All our background stories are written in native English as well. For more information read our launch article.