In July 2022, software engineer Blake Lemoine, whilst working for Google’s Responsible AI team, claimed the company’s AI, LaMDA, is sentient. But he was misreported as suggesting humanity has a moral obligation to give AI rights. The more important, and under-reported issues he raised are around the regulatory capture programs operated by Silicon Valley firms – which raise issues of regulatory compliance and what constitutes user data.
This webinar brings together Blake and two other experts to have a hype-free conversation. In this session we will discuss:
- Blake’s reflections on his experience at Google
- Is sentience really the most important question?
- The problem of looking inside the black box to ensure compliance.
- Do we need increased transparency so that can be aware of what technology exists before companies manage to get laws passed that apply to it?
- Do we need an ICO or Ofcom (or FDA in the US) for AI?
Panel:
Blake Lemoine
Blake is a software engineer and artificial intelligence researcher. He has worked on personality modelling, AI bias, privacy and social contextual modelling. He has also contributed to the ISO standards on artificial intelligence as well as ISO technical reports on AI bias and ethics.
Ivana Bartoletti
Ivana is the Global Data Privacy Officer at Wipro, and is an internationally recognised thought leader in the fields of privacy, data protection and responsible technology. She is a Visiting Policy Fellow at the University of Oxford, her research focuses on how to advance the global sharing of information in the context of privacy, security, data protection and human rights. Ivana is co-editor of The AI Book, a handbook for investors, entrepreneurs and fintech visionaries and is author of An Artificial Revolution, on Power, Politics and AI.
Adam Leon Smith
Adam is the CTO of Dragonfly. He is a member of the BCS Fellows Technical Advisory Group and works with ISO/IEC, the EU and ISTQB on AI testing. He is also an elected Board Member of ForHumanity.
Brian Runciman (Chair)
Brian is Head of Content and Insight at BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT and is an IT journalist with over twenty years’ experience.
