In October we took another step by launching DeepMind Ethics & Society, a research unit that will help us explore and understand the real-world impacts of AI in order to achieve social good. Our research will be guided by Fellows who are renowned experts in their fields – like philosopher Nick Bostrom, climate change specialist Christiana Figueres, leading researcher James Manyika, and economists Diane Coyle and Jeffrey Sachs.
AI must be shaped by society’s priorities and concerns, which is why we’re working with partner organisations on events aimed at opening up the conversation about how AI should be designed and deployed. For example, Joy Buolamwini, who leads the Algorithmic Justice League, and experts from Article 36, Human Rights Watch, and the British Armed forces joined us for a session at Wired Live to discuss algorithmic bias and restricting the use of lethal autonomous weapons. As we’ve said regularly this year, these issues are too important and their effects too wide-ranging to ignore.
That’s also why we also need new spaces, both within and outside AI companies, for conversations about anticipating and directing the impacts of the technology. One example is the Partnership on AI, which we co-chaired this year, and which has been charged with bringing together industry competitors, academia and civil society to discuss key ethical issues. Over the past year, PAI has welcomed 43 new nonprofit and for-profit members and a new Executive Director, Terah Lyons. And in the next few months, we’re looking forward to working with this group to examine a wide range of research themes, including bias and discrimination in algorithms, the impact of machine learning on automation and labour, and more.
Source: https://deepmind.com/blog/article/2017-deepminds-year-review
