AI ethics is a new field concerned with ensuring that AI is used in an ethical way, and it draws on philosophical principles, computer science practices, and law. The main considerations of AI ethics include human agency, safety, privacy, transparency, fairness, and accountability. There are three major approaches to AI ethics: principles, processes, and ethical consciousness. These include the use of guidelines, legislative standards and norms, ethical by design, governance, and integration of codes of conduct and compliance. AI ethics aims to address concerns raised by the development and deployment of new digital technologies, such as AI, big data analytics, and blockchain technologies.

The UK government has proposed a pro-innovation framework for regulating artificial intelligence (AI) that is context-specific and based on the use and impact of the technology. The government plans to give broader direction for key principles relating to transparency, accountability, safety, security and privacy, a mechanism for redress or contestability of AI, and delegate responsibility for developing enforcement strategies to appropriate regulators. The approach aims to provide flexibility for regulators and avoid introducing unnecessary barriers to innovation, with regulators focusing on high-risk applications. The framework welcomes stakeholder views by September 26, 2022, ahead of a white paper with more granular details and implementation plans towards the end of the year.

The EU Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act is introducing regulatory sandboxes, which provide an environment for providers to test the compliance of their product before it is launched on the market. The sandboxes offer priority access to small and medium-sized enterprises and encourage member states to develop their own sandboxes. Spain will be piloting a regulatory sandbox aimed at testing the requirements of the legislation and how conformity assessments and post-market activities may be overseen. The pilot is expected to begin in October 2022 and results published by the end of 2023, with other member states potentially joining or developing their own sandboxes. Sandboxes can have benefits to both businesses and regulators but can also have limitations, such as the risk of abuse and potentially delaying innovation.

The enforcement date of the NYC Bias Audit law, which requires companies to have their automated hiring and promotion tools audited for bias, has been postponed twice. The final enforcement date is now 5 July 2023. Holistic AI is an AI risk management company that offers bias audit services to help companies comply with the law. This article is for informational purposes only and does not provide legal advice.