DAVOS, Switzerland,
Jan. 22, 2020 /PRNewswire/
-- Today at the World Economic Forum in Davos, IBM (NYSE: IBM) launched
the IBM Policy Lab - a new global forum aimed at advancing
bold, actionable policy recommendations for technology's toughest
challenges - at an event hosted by IBM Chairman, President and
Chief Executive Officer Ginni
Rometty that explored the intersection of regulation and
trust in emerging technology.
The IBM Policy Lab, led by co-directors Ryan Hagemann and Jean-Marc Leclerc, two long-standing experts in
technology and public policy, provides a global vision and
actionable recommendations to help policymakers harness the
benefits of innovation while building societal trust in a world
reshaped by data and emerging technology. Its approach is grounded
in the belief that technology can continue to disrupt and improve
civil society while protecting individual privacy, and that
responsible companies have an obligation to help policymakers
address these complex questions.
Christopher Padilla, Vice
President of Government & Regulatory Affairs, IBM,
said:
"The IBM Policy Lab will help usher in and build a
new era of trust in technology. IBM pushes the boundaries of
technology every day, but we also recognize our responsibility
relating to trust and transparency and address how technology is
impacting society. I see an abundance of technology but a shortage
of actionable policy ideas to ensure we protect people while
allowing innovation to thrive. The IBM Policy Lab will set a new
standard for how business can partner with governments and other
stakeholders to help serve the interests of society."
Ahead of the launch event, the IBM Policy Lab released
landmark priorities for the precision regulation of artificial
intelligence, as well as a new Morning Consult study on attitudes
toward regulation of emerging technology. The perspective,
Precision Regulation for Artificial Intelligence, lays out a
regulatory framework for organizations involved in developing or
using AI based on accountability, transparency, and fairness and
security. This builds upon IBM's calls for a "precision regulation"
approach to facial recognition and illegal online content—laws
tailored to hold companies more accountable, without becoming
over-broad in a way that hinders innovation or the larger digital
economy. These approaches are reinforced by a Morning Consult
survey, sponsored by IBM, which found that 62% of Americans and 7
in 10 Europeans responding prefer a precision regulation approach
for technology, with less than 10% of respondents in either region
supporting broad regulation of tech.
IBM's policy paper on AI regulation outlines five policy
imperatives for companies, whether they are providers or owners
of AI systems that can be reinforced with government action. They
include:
- Designate a lead AI ethics official. To oversee
compliance with these expectations, providers and owners should
designate a person responsible for trustworthy AI, such as a lead
AI ethics official.
- Different rules for different risks. All entities
providing or owning an AI system should conduct an initial
high-level assessment of the technology's potential for harm. And
regulation should treat different use cases differently based on
the possible inherent risk.
- Don't hide your AI. Transparency breeds trust; and the
best way to promote transparency is through disclosure making
the purpose of an AI system clear to consumers and businesses. No
one should be tricked into interacting with AI.
- Explain your AI. Any AI system on the market that is
making determinations or recommendations with potentially
significant implications for individuals should be able to explain
and contextualize how and why it arrived at a particular
conclusion.
- Test your AI for bias. All organizations in the AI
developmental lifecycle have some level of shared responsibility in
ensuring the AI systems they design and deploy are fair and secure.
This requires testing for fairness, bias, robustness and security,
and taking remedial actions as needed, both before sale or
deployment and after it is operationalized. For higher risk use
cases,this should be reinforced through "co-regulation", where
companies implement testing and government conducts spot checks for
compliance.
These recommendations come as the new European Commission has
indicated that it will legislate on AI within the first 100 days of
2020 and the White House has released new guidelines for regulation
of AI.
The new Morning Consult study commissioned by the IBM
Policy Lab also found that 85% of Europeans and 81% of
Americans surveyed support consumer data protection in some form,
and that 70% of Europeans and 60% of Americans responding support
AI regulation. Moreover, 74% of American and 85% of EU respondents
agree that artificial intelligence systems should be transparent
and explainable, and strong pluralities in both countries believe
that disclosure should be required for companies creating or
distributing AI systems. Nearly 3 in 4 Europeans and two-thirds of
Americans of respondents support regulations such as conducting
risk assessments, doing pre-deployment testing for bias and
fairness, and reporting to consumers and businesses that an AI
system is being used in decision-making.
In addition to its new AI perspective, the IBM Policy Lab has
released policy recommendations on regulating facial recognition,
technological sovereignty, and climate change, as well as
principles to guide a digital European future. Learn more about the
IBM Policy Lab at ibm.com/policy.
The IBM-hosted event in Davos,
Walking the Tech Tightrope: How to Balance Trust with
Innovation, also featured the President and CEO of Siemens AG
Joe Kaeser, White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy
Coordination Chris Liddell, and Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development Secretary-General José Ángel Gurría
Treviño. CNN International Anchor and Correspondent Julia
Chatterley moderated the discussion.
You can read the transcript here.
View original content to download
multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/davos-panel-hosted-by-ibm-ceo-ginni-rometty-explores-precision-regulation-of-ai--emerging-technology-300991767.html
SOURCE IBM