Paul Scully MP to call for industry-wide collaboration to ensure safe AI adoption at BSI event
26 October
Large-scale collaboration is needed to ensure safe and ethical use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), the Minister for Tech and the Digital Economy will tell attendees at a BSI event in partnership with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and the AI Fringe in the run up to the UK Government’s AI Safety Summit.
He was speaking at AI for All, a BSI event in partnership with the Government ahead of the UK AI Safety Summit next week. The minister told guests that “Events like this one hosted by BSI are a fantastic opportunity to examine how standards can play a key role in ensuring public trust and confidence in the use of AI, which will be crucial in enabling us all to realise the huge opportunities AI presents.
We are looking forward to continuing to discuss these themes during the AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park next week with international governments, academics, industry and civil society.”
Speakers at the event, including Simon Reeve, Director of Innovation at Alan Turing Institute and Angie Ma, co-founder of AI firm Faculty, will explore the opportunity we have to collaborate across society to mitigate AI safety issues and unlock AI’s full potential to be a force for good.
Sessions will cover AI safety, standards and the regulatory landscape, including topics such as Applied AI Ethics and AI Adoption Strategies. The event, held in Milton Keynes close to Bletchley Park, where next week’s summit will take place, follows the publication of BSI’s Trust in AI Poll, which revealed an AI ‘confidence gap’ linked to low levels of public trust in the technology.
The study, which identified global attitudes towards AI's potential to improve society, explored the importance of guardrails to ensure AI’s ethical use and engender trust and found that over three fifths of Britons want international guidelines for its safe use. More than half of UK respondents (54%) were excited about how AI can shape a better future for everyone by improving the accuracy of medical diagnosis and nearly half (43%) welcome help from the technology in reducing food waste.
Without bridging the confidence gap, BSI’s research found the UK and other similar economies could lose out on the benefits AI has to offer, especially when compared with countries including China and India, where enthusiasm for and use of AI already supersedes the UK. For example, China (70%) and India (64%) already use AI every day at work whereas the UK average is 29%. 86% and 89% respectively expect their industries to use it by 2030, falling to 51% in the UK (62% globally).
The AI for All event was arranged to enable meaningful discussion around how society builds digital trust in order to shape AI as a force for good.
Scott Steedman, Director-General, Standards at BSI said: “We are delighted to welcome Minister Paul Scully to BSI’s AI for All event, hosted in partnership with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), ahead of the important global AI Safety Summit being hosted by the UK next week.
“International standards and assurance can be harnessed to enable the safe and secure deployment of AI technologies as a force for good, accelerating societal progress for all. We have the opportunity to provide a platform for UK based industry, societal, academic and government representatives to work together on a framework of rules and practices to accelerate innovation and at the same time provide confidence to consumers in this transformational technology.”
“BSI is proud to be at the centre of the AI debate, collaborating with key industry innovators, civil society and the UK government to discuss how safe AI can be used for public good and to improve people’s lives.”
Earlier this month BSI published Shaping Society 5.0, an essay collection exploring how AI innovations can be an enabler that accelerates progress.
The UK Government is holding its summit on safe use of AI at Bletchley Park on 1st and 2nd November. BSI is an official partner for the AI Fringe event, an independent series of events hosted across London and the UK to complement the AI Safety Summit
For more information on BSI’s Shaping Trust in AI event please visit here.
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Notes to Editors
For more information on BSI’s Trust in AI Poll, please visit: https://www.bsigroup.com/en-GB/our-services/digital-trust/shaping-society-5-0/
