AI – Opportunities, Threats And Policy – An Overview

AI will change the world. As with previous innovations that revolutionised society, the nature of those changes are difficult to predict. Legislators risk stifling innovation or imposing ineffective regulation if they act too hastily. But gaps in regulation are also problematic because of the risk of discrimination, division and bias. In the absence of clear guidelines, organisations should think carefully about the outcomes they want to achieve with AI and proceed with caution.

What is AI?

There is no consensus on the definition of AI. Stanford University defines intelligence as "the ability to learn and perform suitable techniques to solve problems" in a way that is "appropriate to the context in an uncertain, ever varying world." AI is "the science and engineering of making intelligent machines" (McCarthy, 1955). In other words, AI describes processes by which machines can learn in a similar way to humans.