Symptom or cause?

There is one fundamental truth about AI – its developed, created and fed by information and skills provided by humans, therefore it has at its inherent core all the fallibilities, prejudices, strengths and weaknesses of those humans that have fed into it.

It’s a relationship that may well reduce in time, but it is a relationship nonetheless. So rather than us worry about the impact of AI, Machine Learning, robots etc. our focus should be on those using AI – not only the obvious candidates such as Facebook, Google, Amazon etc. but also those businesses developing AI for education, the justice system, the banking and finance sectors.

There is much talk about ethical AI – and that is a tremendous step forward but it’s not so much about placing an emphasis on the ethics of what we eventually build - it’s more the humanity, morality and ethics of those doing the building.

Focusing on the cause rather than the symptom seems a better place to focus.