Just 10 days after forming an advisory council to guide the company’s development of AI, Google. This was an ethics board set-up by Google last week to help the tech giant tackle morality issues surrounding its technology has already been disbanded.
Google today disclosed that it has dissolved a short-lived, external advisory board designed to monitor its use of artificial intelligence, following a week of controversy regarding the company’s selection of members. The decision, reported first today by Vox, is largely due to outcry over the board’s inclusion of Heritage Foundation president Kay Coles James, a noted conservative figure who has openly espoused anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and, through the Heritage Foundation, fought efforts to extend rights to transgender individuals and to combat climate change.
Named the Advanced Technology External Advisory Council (or ATEAC), the committee was formed to ensure the “responsible use and development” of artificial intelligence within the tech giant.
With debates raging over military uses of AI, and its use in surveillance of citizens, there are plenty of ethical issues surrounding AI not least in terms of data bias, which can see AI systems blindly entrench prejudices based on the information fed to it.
But the selection of ATEAC members was immediately controversial including the CEO of a military drone company, and a member with openly anti-trans views – with one board member immediately resigning and any remaining members having to defend their position on the council.
From the outset it was clear that ATEAC was poorly equipped to actually tackle concerns being raised around the ethical use of AI.
The potential harms of AI are not evenly distributed, and follow historical patterns of discrimination and exclusion. From AI that doesn’t recognize trans people, doesn’t “hear” more feminine voices, and doesn’t “see” women of color, to AI used to enhance police surveillance, profile immigrants, and automate weapons??those who are most marginalized are most at risk.”
Shutting the committee down entirely may have evaded a PR disaster in the short term, but unless Google actually seeks council on the ethical problems already plaguing AI development, the next ATEAC won’t be worth the effort.
