The realities of artificial intelligence
Tania Duarte explains why, in post-Brexit UK, the scrutiny of ethics in advanced tech cannot be left to companies or governments. We have all been made keenly aware of the technology that underpins our lives by the lifeline thrown to us by online communication during the pandemic. We have also seen the depth of the social inequality in our societies. And there has been a growing, but still limited, realisation of the dangerous connection between the two. In the UK, last year, A-Level students marched the streets with banners, shouting “Your algorithm doesn’t know me”, after artificial intelligence (AI) deployed by the government to replace exams under-predicted the performances of students from underprivileged backgrounds. Then the Home Office was successfully challenged over the use of an algorithm to sift visa applications. It was said to entrench unfair and racist decision-making in the visa system – “speedy boarding for white people”. Against this background, the UK has yet ...