[trustable-software] Artificial Intelligence (Select Committee Report)

[trustable at panic.fluff.org]

I've been following a growing discussion around 'trustable' issues with 
Artificial intelligence and particularly I've been watching the UK 
government discuss these issues as it has long term implications for the 
delivery of software systems.

Lord Reid has some very interesting things to say here
     http://bit.ly/2QT9cFH

I quote the most important paragraph here
  " In construction, when a tragedy happens, we are able to trace the
    building materials used in construction. That process of audit
    encourages responsibility and the knowledge beforehand of the consequences
    of actions. But most software today is sold with an explicit disclaimer of
    fitness for purpose and it is virtually impossible to answer the
    questions: by whom, against what specification, why and when was this
    code generated, tested or deployed? In the event of a problem with software,
    who is responsible? The human owner? The company that supplied the
    software? The programmer? The chief executive of the company that
    supplied it? I would therefore argue that machine intelligence needs
    to be subordinate in responsibility to a human controller and therefore
    cannot in itself be legally responsible as an adult human, although it
    might in future have the legal status of a corporation or of a minor—that
    is, intelligent, but below the age of responsibility."

...

    "We might refer to the concept of that clear chain of responsibility,
    linking an audit of the specifications, code, testing and function to
    responsible individuals, as “trustable software”. Recent developments,
    including distributed ledger technology—blockchain to the
    uninitiated—would permit oversight to be implemented relatively
    easily.​"

Having read this last paragraph I feel like Henry Higgins and jumping up 
and down and saying 'By George, he's got it !!'

Perhaps, this means that in fact legislation will now follow encouraging 
such enforcement


Edmund

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Edmund J. Sutcliffe                     Thoughtful Solutions; Creatively
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