Lord Sales calls for regulation of artificial intelligence
Computer algorithms must be regulated to ensure the digital world is not lawless, Supreme Court justice Lord Sales has said.
Delivering the Sir Henry Brooke Lecture at the British and Irish Legal Information Institute, Lord Sales called for the creation of an expert commission to counter the “grave threats” algorithms and artificial intelligence pose.
The judge said that the technologies diminish human capacity to question and alter power relationships, can encode “unspoken biases” and nullify concepts such as fairness, justice and mercy.
He said: “Subjecting human life to processes governed by code means that code can gain a grip on our thinking which reduces human capacities and diminishes political choice.”
Lord Sales said that algorithmic systems need to be designed with human values and the protection of fundamental human interests built in.
“For example, they need to be checked for biases based on gender, sexuality, class, age, ability,” he said.