Concerns over artificial intelligence are nothing new. In the nineteen-eighties, during the lead up to the so-called AI Winter when the field failed to deliver on its grander promises, headlines warned that robots would take our jobs (assuming Skynet didn’t kill us first). If there were calls for policymakers to intervene, none did. These remarks are part of an ongoing project exploring key challenges for artificial intelligence law and policy. Concerns over artificial intelligence are nothing new. In the nineteen-eighties, during the lead up to the so-called AI Winter when the field failed to deliver on its grander promises, headlines warned that robots would take our jobs (assuming Skynet didn’t kill us first). If there were calls for policymakers to intervene, none did. Today, techniques in AI developed in the sixties and seventies join with cheap processing and ubiquitous data to yield promising new applications such as real-time translation and cancer diagnosis. The concerns are back as well. And this time, policymakers are paying attention. In the summer of 2016, the Obama White House conducted four major workshops on artificial intelligence. Both the Senate and the House held first-of-their-kind hearings on AI and advanced robotics. Abroad, the European Commission formed a committee on robotics and AI law and the Japan Ministry of Trade and Energy formed a Robot Policy Office. Foundations, individuals, and companies have pledged tens of millions of dollars to foster beneficial AI. Today there is recognition, largely absent in the scares of the past, that AI presents real policy challenges. So what are we to do about them?
Session Summary
Artificial Intelligence Law and Policy
MLconf 2017 Seattle
Ryan Calo
University of Washington
Assistant Professor
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