People will get hurt, so who shall be held responsible?

This week, we discuss ethics, government regulation, and
similarities between AI and cars in the 1910s with Natalia
Modjeska, research director for AI and intelligent automation at
analyst firm Omdia.


Natalia joined Omdia just a few months ago, having spent years
implementing and benchmarking AI and analytics projects across
organizations like PwC and Info-Tech Research Group – you can
find some of her observations on Towards Data Science.


We start with ethics in AI – which is shaping up as one of the
hottest topics of 2021, often discussed in mainstream media. But
why the sudden interest? And does the responsibility for
preventing any potential harms created by AI-based systems sit
with the executives and boards of directors, or with governments
and regulatory agencies?


According to Natalia, the situation around AI resembles the
appearance of first mass-produced cars; these machines were
clearly useful, but they were also very dangerous since they had
to drive across roads designed for pedestrians and horse-drawn
carriages, with no street signs, traffic lights, or highway
codes.


This lack of safeguards can be addressed – let’s just hope it
doesn’t take 70 years to create an equivalent of a frontal airbag
for AI.


We also cover: The Draft EU Regulation on AI! The first traffic
light! Cloning! Lawyers! China!


[tired sigh] Like and subscribe.


As always, you can find the people responsible for the podcast
online:


Max Smolaks (@maxsmolax)

Tien Fu (@tienchifu)

Natalia Modjeska (@NataliaModjeska)