AI in the news: Intelligence Agencies Face Challenges with AI and Developments in AI Ethics

This week’s The Economist reports on the challenges facing the use of AI in intelligence agencies. One of the issues cited in the article, “Spy Agencies Have High Hopes for AI”, is the dearth of adequate sets of information that can be ingested. AI depends on massive sets of data to be effective and in a number of intelligence settings there is limited available data.

Fast Company published two articles in its March / April 2021 issue on the subject of AI ethics, “AI Has a Big Tech Problem”, and “AI Ethics: Taking Stock and the Way Forward”. (Sorry the online links aren’t available – please contact us if you’d like copies of these articles) The overriding message in these articles is that the thought leadership in AI is concentrated in a limited number of firms and institutions. The risk reported is that ethical decisions made by this small cohort may be influenced, however subtly, by other demands – and not necessarily in the best interest of society as a whole. Something to consider.