LETTER: "BIG TECH HAS TOO MUCH OF A SAY IN AI ETHICS"
CAN BAŞKENT
I read the piece by Madhumita Murgia on DeepMind with great interest (“‘It’s hard not to go through imposter syndrome’”, How to Lead, July 19).
Lila Ibrahim, DeepMind’s chief operating officer, is right when she says “translating ethical principles into the practicalities” of the industry must be a challenge. Yet, from a citizen’s point of view this also underlines a regulatory and legal gap. What becomes obvious after reading Ibrahim’s insight is that Alphabet, its owner, is becoming more and more a judge, a victim and a prosecutor for AI ethics. This needs to change.
We cannot allow Big Tech to self-regulate when it comes to sensitive areas such as facial recognition or lip reading, or even self-driving cars. This is not a challenge. This is a legal and sociopolitical gap that our democratic societies must fill before it is too late.