Abstract
The deployment of AI promises to improve a host of important services for society as a whole, but also raises concerns with regard to uncontrolled development of technological systems and a certain inappropriate use or disregard for social factors. This technology has such power that it structures and defines the end-purposes of human activity, to the extent that individuals and communities have no choice but to adapt and change under its influence. This is why AI governance is essential, at the local and international levels. This article explores the role of ethical charters in building the future of AI governance, through their formalization process and their potential for legal developments.
Keywords
- Ethics
- Ethical charters
- Artificial intelligence
- Formalisation of ethics
- Social regulation
- Norms
- Legal framework
A technology is not merely a system of machines with certain functions; rather it is an expression of a social world (Nye 2007).
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- 1.
As reference: COMPAS (Correctional Offender Management Profiling for Alternative Sanctions), a criminal recidivism prediction tool (2016), the Facebook job offer recommendation algorithm favouring male applicants over women (2019), the AppleCard, which discriminated against women applying for lines of credit (2019).
- 2.
The word good is in brackets as the very meaning of good AI is a complex issue: Ben Green, ““Good” isn’t good enough”, 2019, Neurips conference paper, available online: https://aiforsocialgood.github.io/neurips2019/accepted/track3/pdfs/67_aisg_neurips2019.pdf.
- 3.
See to this effect the awareness-raising paper produced by UNESCO, Steering AI and advanced ICTs for knowledge societies: a Rights, Openness, Access, and Multi-stakeholder Perspective, Xianhong Hu [1], Neupane, Bhanu, Echaiz, Lucia Flores, Sibal, Prateek, Rivera Lam, Macarena, 2019.
- 4.
We rediscover the appearance of the first ethical charters in 2016 according to the typology of the Berkman Klein Center: Principled AI: Mapping Consensus in Ethical and Rights-Based Approaches to Principles for AI, https://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:42160420.
- 5.
IEEE Global Initiative on Ethics of Autonomous and Intelligent Systems (n 5) pp. 21–22 (See Principle 2.).
- 6.
See example of the standards of practice proposed by IEEE and validated by the engineers concerned.
- 7.
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-51178198; Other key technology players like Microsoft president have also called for further regulation Monica Nickelsburg, “Microsoft President Brad Smith Calls for AI Regulations at Davos” (21 January 2020), online: GeekWire https://www.geekwire.com/2020/microsoft-president-brad-smith-calls-ai-regulation-davos/.
- 8.
The Guardian, “The Cambridge Analytica scandal changed the world – but it didn't change Facebook” https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/mar/17/the-cambridge-analytica-scandal-changed-the-world-but-it-didnt-change-facebook.
- 9.
Report of the Montreal Declaration for the Responsible Development of Artificial Intelligence (2018). Part 6 - Priority areas and their recommendations for the responsible development of AI. https://5da05b0d-f158-4af28b9f892984c33739.filesusr.com/ugd/ebc3a3_d6a627b2f8644a30ae174762557da6fc.pdf.
- 10.
See for example: Marion Oswald, Algorithm-assisted decision-making in the public sector: framing the issues using administrative law rules governing discretionary power, (2018), Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A. 376; Michael Froomkin, Ian Kerr and Joelle Pineau, «When AIs Outperform Doctors: Confronting the Challenges of a Tort-Induced Over-Reliance on Machine Learning, (2019) vol 61:33, Arizona Law Review, 33; Frank Pasquale, Data-Informed Duties in AI development, Columbia Law Review 119:1917 (2019).
- 11.
For examples see the different essays in Glenn Cohen and al. Big Data, Health Law, and Bioethics, 2018 Cambridge University Press; Ian Kerr & Katie Szilagyi, “Asleep at the switch? How killer robots become a force multiplier of military necessity” in Ryan M. Calo, Michael Froomkin, Ian Kerr, eds, Robot Law (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Pub Ltd, 2016) 333; Harry Surden, 35 Ga. St. U. L. Rev.1305 (2018–2019) Artificial Intelligence and Law: An Overview.
- 12.
- 13.
Indeed, sometimes, the legal framework is clear, but its understanding by professionals is not; it then becomes a matter of better communicating the meaning of such frameworks. See for example Marie-Andrée Girard and Catherine Régis, « La collaboration interprofessionnelle: une pratique complexe dans un environnement juridique tout aussi complexe» 2020 J.D.S.A.M. numéro 25 at 153.
- 14.
- 15.
See: AI Index Report de 2019. https://hai.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/ai_index_2019_report.pdf.
- 16.
That being said, law is more than a tool to distribute the costs of incidents among actors developing and deploying innovation; it can contribute to share the benefits of innovation, for example by influencing private industries development and labor conditions.
- 17.
For example of such work: a) High-Level panel on AI de la Commission européennes: https://ec.europa.eu/futurium/en/ai-alliance-consultation/guidelines#Top and https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/policy-and-investment-recommendations-trustworthy-artificial-intelligence; b) Montreal Declaration for the Responsible Development of Artificial Intelligence. Journal de Droit de la Santé et de l'Assurance Maladie (Journal of Health and Health Insurance Law).
- 18.
- 19.
Adele Lutun (2019), « L’article 11 du projet de loi bioéthique français prend-il en compte les principes de la Déclaration de Montréal pour un développement responsable de l’intelligence artificielle ? / Does Art. 11 of the French draft bioethics law take into account the principles of the Montreal Declaration on the Responsible Development of Artificial Intelligence? Available online: https://www.chairesante.ca/articles/2019/larticle-11-du-projet-de-loi-bioethique-francais-prend-il-en-compte-les-principes-de-la-declaration-de-montreal-pour-un-developpement-responsable-de-lintelligence-artificielle/»; Catherine Régis, « Perspectives internationales sur la régulation de l’IA dans le domaine de la santé», conference given for the Entretiens Droit & Santé, Université Paris Descartes, Paris, 6 décembre 2019.
- 20.
See: United-Nations, The Age of Digital Interdependence, Report of the UN Secretary-General’s High-Level on Digital Cooperation, 2019.
- 21.
CNN.com (2019). When seeing is no longer believing - Inside the Pentagon’s race against deepfake videos. Online: https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2019/01/business/pentagons-race-against-deepfakes/.
- 22.
https://en.unesco.org/news/unescos-expert-group-revises-draft-text-recommendation-ethics-artificial-intelligence (date of access: 2 december 2020).
- 23.
See: Carol Gilligan, In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women's Development (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1982). Eva Feder Kittay and Diana T. Meyers, eds., Women and Moral Theory (Totowa, NJ: Rowman & Littlefield, 1987). Neil Noddings, Caring: A Feminine Approach to Ethics and Moral Education (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1984). Blum, Lawrence A., 1988, “Gilligan and Kohlberg: Implications for Moral Theory,” Ethics, 98 (3): 472–491. Naussbaum1999, Sex and Social Justice, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- 24.
See the Charter of the United Nations: https://treaties.un.org/doc/publication/ctc/uncharter.pdf.
- 25.
The binding and non-binding distinction is a classic division in public international law. A norm is considered to be binding when it creates mandatory obligations for member states (hard law) and non-binding when it is intended to assist action, consultation, negotiation and cooperation without explicit obligations or specific adoption procedures (soft law).
- 26.
United-Nations, The Age of Digital Interdependence, Report of the UN Secretary-General’s High-Level on Digital Cooperation, 2019.
- 27.
See Toward Trustworthy AI Development: Mechanisms for Supporting Verifiable Claims, a major charter created by a large portion of the international AI research community. https://arxiv.org/abs/2004.07213.
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Langlois, L., Régis, C. (2021). Analyzing the Contribution of Ethical Charters to Building the Future of Artificial Intelligence Governance. In: Braunschweig, B., Ghallab, M. (eds) Reflections on Artificial Intelligence for Humanity. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12600. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-69128-8_10
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