AI Challenges Need to be Addressed: Fairness, Accountability and Transparency

March 17, 2020

At the launch of the OECD Artificial Intelligence Observatory, CSISAC Steering Committee member and President and Executive Director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) Marc Rotenberg emphasized the urgency to address the societal challenges introduced by AI. "Decisions using AI techniques are having real impacts on people lives, on employment, education and most notably in the criminal justice field, where many forms of bias are being replicated and embedded in automated systems of decision making". Rotenberg remarked that the OECD is the right place to address the AI challenges, echoing the support of the OECD for economic growth based on the rule of law, democratic institutions and fundamental rights. He exemplified the preeminence of the OECD in technological policy with the influential 1980 Privacy Guidelines, as they continue to inform national law , international agreements and professional recommendations. However "more than a decade intervened between the adoption of the privacy guidelines and the creation of the modern Internet, but we don't have that time to understand the far-reaching implications of AI".

In addressing the AI challenges, Rotenberg referred to the broad support of the Universal Guidelines for Artificial Intelligence, also endorsed by scientific societies, underscoring the importance of fairness, accountability and transparency. Rotenberg renewed CSISAC commitment for a continued engagement on the work on AI policy, finishing with a quote from US inventor Thomas Edison: "What we create with our hands, we should control with our minds".

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