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On December 7, 2022, techUK and partners hosted the sixth annual Digital Ethics Summit, which brought together academics, philosophers, attorneys, technology specialists, policymakers, and other critical stakeholders. For the first time since 2019, the Summit was held in person, and we were thrilled to bring together speakers and attendees from across the digital ethics field to discuss some of society's most complicated ethical concerns. The Digital Ethics Summit has been a key date in the tech industry and civil society calendar for the past six years, and the agenda has closely aligned with global developments; initially, we brought thought leaders together to explore the principles that must underpin a world of ethical technology. Since then, the discussion has shifted to ethics in practice, ranging from private sector measures to legislative and regulatory initiatives, all of which are currently being implemented. 

Shoosmiths’ AI lead and partner Alex Kirkhope attended the Digital Ethics Summit, featured below are some of his key takeaways from attending this year. 

• Public engagement: Building trust in AI

With the constant flow of international summits and emerging rules and regulations to address its dangers, and the understandable media focus on high-profile providers like OpenAI, Microsoft and Google, it’s all too easy to forget that one of the key challenges to the widespread adoption of AI is public trust. The Summit welcomed voices from outside the tech sector discussed some of the common misconceptions and fears around AI, and how those fears could be addressed through engagement, education, and familiarisation. 

• The International Dimension

A consistent thread throughout the day was the need to weave national domestic regulation within a global institutional and regulatory framework, with much focus on the potential evolution of the UK’s proposed regulatory approach in its AI White Paper released earlier this year. The Government’s formal response to its consultation on the White Paper is expected soon, and it will be intriguing to see how it responds to some of the consistent themes beginning to emerge. 

• Don’t forget the current law

The UK’s Information Commissioner, John Edwards, delivered a timely reminder that whilst much of the noise around AI suggests the risks it poses are novel, the rules and principles that apply to many of those risks are far from new, particularly when it comes to the use and protection of data. The same can be said (to a certain extent at least) of issues such as IP rights, discrimination and bias which come up so often. 

• Looking ahead: Was 2023 the peak of the AI hype curve?

With AI poised at an intriguing inflection point, will 2024 see the AI hype curve continue to rise, or have we already reached its peak? With boardroom wrangles in Silicon Valley, and a wider appreciation within organisations of what AI can – and as importantly can’t – deliver in the short to medium term, some have speculated that this is the point the promises of AI begin to unravel.

You can read the full article on Shoosmiths website here.

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