Extracts from Lords debate on the Economy: Spring Statement
Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts (Con):...In my remaining remarks, I
want to look to the future and for my noble friend to comment on
progress in three particular areas. The first is what the
Government call emerging tech, and particularly the area
of Artificial Intelligence and robotics. Over the next 10
to 15 years AI and robotics will transform the way we live and the
way we work. In 2015, 5.5 million consumer robots...Request free trial
Extracts from Lords
debate on the Economy: Spring Statement
(Con):...In my remaining remarks, I want to look to
the future and for my noble friend to comment on progress in three
particular areas. The first is what the Government call emerging
tech, and particularly the area of Artificial Intelligence and robotics.
Over the next 10 to 15 years AI and robotics will transform the way
we live and the way we work. In 2015, 5.5 million consumer robots
were sold and next year 40 million are expected. They will free us,
as that tide comes along, from doing many tasks that are dull,
dangerous and dirty. It will be a huge important worldwide wave of
change and it is important that this country is in the vanguard of
it. Perhaps my noble friend could update the House on the
Treasury’s perspective on progress in that regard...
Lord
(Lab):...There was a dire prediction by the noble Lord,
Lord Hodgson, regarding the effect of Artificial Intelligence. I have enough
trouble with my own intelligence in knowing whether he is right or
wrong; I suspect that the answer lies somewhere in the middle. The
plea I make relates to my declared interest as the chairman of the
board of governors of my local primary school. We spent quite a few
hours recently looking at our three-year budget. The task for us is
to try to manage a deficit. We are getting to the point now where,
although we are trying to protect teaching, we have cut everything
else to the bone. That is a really serious problem not just for my
school but for a range of schools. I see it as a special problem
for primary schools, because the cost of remedying the situation
for them if we do not get it right is much greater, as we know. The
school of which I am chairman of the board of governors is a very
diverse school in what is not the wealthiest of neighbourhoods;
nevertheless, we are still achieving good results. My concern is
that if the Chancellor does not recognise in his forthcoming Budget
the need to do something about the education budget, the outlook
for our next generation of young people will be very serious...
The Minister of State, Department for International
Development (Lord Bates) (Con):...My noble friend Lord
Hodgson asked about Artificial Intelligence and
technology. New technologies have the potential to drive economic
growth in the UK. We believe they are not something we should be
fearful of but that we should ensure that we have the skills and
the investment to take advantage of them when they arrive...
To read the whole debate, CLICK
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Extract from Commons
debate on European Affairs
(Bolton West)
(Con):...The ability to adapt is key in any dynamic
economy. Artificial Intelligence, increasing
automation and many different things are coming along the line, and
if we are able, independently, to make laws and regulations to suit
our needs in the United Kingdom, as opposed to having regulations
and laws that suit the needs of the European Union, with its
different competing interests, we will be in a far better place to
face the ever-changing world...
To read the whole debate, CLICK
HERE
Extracts from Public Bill
committee consideration of the Data Protection Bill
(Birmingham, Hodge Hill)
(Lab):...I remain concerned that the safeguards the
Government have proposed to ensure people’s human rights are not
jeopardised by the use of automated decision making are, frankly,
not worth the paper they are written on. We know that prospective
employers and their agents use algorithms and automated systems to
analyse very large sets of data and, through the use
of Artificial Intelligence and
machine learning, make inferences about whether people are
appropriate to be considered to be hired or retained by a
particular company. We have had a pretty lively debate in this
country about the definition of a worker, and we are all very
grateful to for his work on that
question. Some differences emerged, and the Business, Energy and
Industrial Strategy Committee has put its views on the
record...
(Bristol North West)
(Lab):...I will mention briefly the IMSI-catchers, because
that covers my constituency of Bristol North West. It was the
Bristol Cable, a local media co-operative of which I am a proud
member—I pay £1 a month, so I declare an interest—that uncovered
some of the issues around IMSI-catchers with bulk collection of
information. It is really important that when we are having
debates, as we have had with algorithms and Artificial Intelligence, that we recognise
that human intervention and the understanding of some of these
systems is sometimes difficult. There are very few people who
understand how algorithms actually work or how the systems actually
work. As they become more advanced and learn and make decisions by
themselves, the idea of human intervention or a human understanding
of that is increasingly difficult...
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home
Department (Victoria Atkins):...Indeed. A pertinent
example of that is the development of Artificial Intelligence to help the police
categorise images of child sexual exploitation online. That tool
will help given the volume of offences now being carried out across
the world. It will also help the officers involved in those cases,
because having to sit at a computer screen and categorise some of
these images is soul-breaking, frankly. If we can use modern
technology and Artificial Intelligence to help categorise
those images, that must surely be a good thing...
To read the whole debate, CLICK
HERE
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