Could Ireland follow UK Government’s Report Recommendation’s on AI

Artificial intelligence is poised to unleash the next wave of digital disruption, and companies should prepare for it now. Nine months after the UK government commissioned an independent review into artificial intelligence, the authors have revealed their findings

In the report, Sandra Wachter, Brent Mittelstadt, and Luciano Floridi, a research team at the Alan Turing Institute in London and the University of Oxford, call for a trusted third party body that can investigate AI decisions for people who believe they have been discriminated against.

Within the review’s 18 recommendations, the authors argue there should be a framework created to explain how decisions are made by AI systems. Academics working within machine learning have expressed concerns that the systems are “black boxes” that come to decisions that can’t be explained.

Given the issues of legality over algorithms with the onset of GDPR next year, the report also recommends creating a process that would enable developers to explain why their AI is behaving the way it is.
This, the report said, should be jointly developed by the Information Commissioner’s Office and the Alan Turing Institute.

Also included in the report is the need for greater resources to be made available for AI education with recommendations for up to 300 PhD places to be created at universities,

Professor Barry O’Sullivan a Fellow of EurAI, the European Association for Artificial Intelligence (EurAI), a Senior Member of AAAI, the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence and director of the Insight Centre for Data Analytics said it is very important that the Irish Government take note.

Professor O’Sullivan said that moves by IDA Ireland to promote the country as a destination for AI companies were to be applauded, “All of the major names involved in AI already have a presence here, although most are not doing research locally. Given that, and Ireland’s academic credentials, and the accompanying increase in collaboration between industry and academia, there is massive potential for the country in this area,” he said.
“The UK AI report is excellent and sets a very clear strategy for them. Ireland has a great opportunity to do something similar and has many unique advantages that put us in a very strong position.
“The IDA, and particularly [chief technologist] Ken Finnegan, have been promoting Ireland as an ‘AI island’. There really is a great opportunity here for us to bring the various pieces together and have major impact.”