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31 - Moral Machines

The Emerging EU Policy on “Trustworthy AI”

from Part VI - Applications and Future Directions of Law and Algorithms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 October 2020

Woodrow Barfield
Affiliation:
University of Washington
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Summary

The development of a policy framework for the sustainable and ethical use of artificial intelligence (AI) techniques has gradually become one of the top policy priorities in developed countries as well as in the international context, including the G7 and G20 and work within the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the World Economic Forum, and the International Telecommunications Union. Interestingly, this mounting debate has taken place with very little attention to the definition of what AI is and its phenomenology in the real world, as well as its expected evolution. Politicians evoke the imminent takeover of smart autonomous robots; entrepreneurs announce the end of mankind, or the achievement of immortality through brain upload; and academics fight over the prospects of Artificial General Intelligence, which appears inevitable to some, and preposterous to others. In all this turmoil, governments developed the belief that, as both Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping recently put it, the country that will lead in AI will, as a consequence, come to dominate the world. As AI gains positions in the ranking of top government priorities, a digital arms race has also emerged, in particular between the United States and China. This race bears far-reaching consequences when it comes to earmarking funds for research, innovation, and investment on AI technologies: gradually, AI becomes an end, rather than a means, and military and domestic security applications are given priority over civilian use cases, which may contribute more extensively to social and environmental sustainability. As of today, one could argue that the top priority in US AI policy is contrasting the rise of China, and vice versa.1

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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  • Moral Machines
  • Edited by Woodrow Barfield, University of Washington
  • Book: The Cambridge Handbook of the Law of Algorithms
  • Online publication: 19 October 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108680844.032
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  • Moral Machines
  • Edited by Woodrow Barfield, University of Washington
  • Book: The Cambridge Handbook of the Law of Algorithms
  • Online publication: 19 October 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108680844.032
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Moral Machines
  • Edited by Woodrow Barfield, University of Washington
  • Book: The Cambridge Handbook of the Law of Algorithms
  • Online publication: 19 October 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108680844.032
Available formats
×