Google’s DeepMind has created a special department that will focus on ethics, with attention placed also on transparency and independence, Wired reported. AI specialist DeepMind said the aim of the new unit will be to help technologists understand the ethical implications of their work and help society decide how AI can be beneficial. All of the new unit’s research will be published online in full and its six external fellows -who include economist professor Diane Coyle; philosopher and existential risk expert professor Nick Bostrom; international diplomat Christiana Figueres; and economist professor Jeffrey Sachs- have not signed any non-disclosure agreements.
The DeepMind Ethics & Society (DMES) unit, in the works for the past 18 months, will include up to 25 DeepMind employees and six, unpaid, external fellows. It will be headed by technology consultant Sean Legassick and former Google UK and EU policy manager and government adviser Verity Harding. It will work alongside technologists within DeepMind and fund external research based on six areas: privacy transparency and fairness; economic impacts; governance and accountability; managing AI risk; AI morality and values; and how AI can address the world’s challenges.
Within those broad themes, some of the specific areas addressed will be algorithmic bias, the future of work and lethal autonomous weapons. DMES will be separate to Google’s more secretive internal ethics and safety board, which has been in operation since around the time DeepMind was acquired by Google for GBP 400 million in September 2010.
