Simon McDougall, Executive Director for Technology Policy and Innovation, invites comment from organisations on the development of an auditing framework for AI.
Applications of Artificial
Intelligence (AI) are starting to permeate many aspects of our lives. I see new
and innovative uses of this technology every day: in health care, recruitment, commerce
. . . the list goes on and on.
We know the benefits that AI
can bring to organisations and individuals. But there are risks too. And
that’s what I want to talk about in this blog post.
The General Data Protection
Regulation (GDPR) that came into effect in May was a much-needed modernisation
of data protection law.
Its considerable focus on new
technologies reflects the concerns of legislators here in the UK and throughout
Europe about the personal and societal effect of powerful data-processing
technology like profiling and automated decision-making.
The GDPR strengthens
individuals’ rights when it comes to the way their personal data is processed
by technologies such as AI. They have, in some circumstances, the right to
object to profiling and they have the right to challenge a decision made solely
by a machine, for example.
The law requires
organisations to build-in data protection by design and to identify and address
risks at the outset by completing data protection impact assessments. Privacy
and innovation must sit side-by-side. One cannot be at the expense of the
other.
That’s why AI is one of our
top three strategic
priorities.
And that’s why we’ve added to
our already expert tech department by recruiting DrReuben
Binns, our first Postdoctoral Research Fellow in AI. He will head a team
from my Technology Policy and Innovation Directorate to develop our first
auditing framework for AI.
The framework will give us a
solid methodology to audit AI applications and ensure they are transparent,
fair; and to ensure that the necessary measures to assess and manage data
protection risks arising from them are in place.
The framework will also
inform future guidance for organisations to support the continuous and
innovative use of AI within the law. The guidance will complement existing
resources, not least our award winning BigData
and AI report.
But we don’t want to work
alone. We’d like your input now, at the very start of our thinking.
Whether you’re a data
scientist, app developer or head up a company that relies on AI to do business,
whether you’re from the private, public or third sector, we want you to join
our open discussion about the genuine challenges arising from the adoption of
AI. This will ensure the published framework will be both conceptually sound
and applicable to real life situations.
We welcome your thoughts on
the plans and approach we set out in this post. We will shortly publish another
article here to outline the proposed framework structure, its key elements and
focus areas.
On this new blog site you
will be able to find regular updates on specific AI data protection challenges
and on how our thinking in relation to the framework is developing. And we want
your feedback. You can leave us a comment or email us direct.
The feedback you give us will
help us shape our approach, research and priorities. We’ll use it to inform a
formal consultation paper, which we expect to publish by January 2020. The
final AI auditing framework and the associated guidance for firms is on track
for publication by spring 2020.
We look forward to working
with you!
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 Simon McDougall is Executive Director for Technology Policy and Innovation at the ICO where he is developing an approach to addressing new technological and online harms. He is particularly focused on artificial intelligence and data ethics. |
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