Experts ‘deeply concerned’ as Government agency drops focus on bias in AI

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Get our free View from Westminster email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Technology experts have expressed concern that the Government is “pivoting away from ‘safety’ towards ‘national security’” after it announced a rebranding of the AI Safety Institute. Michael Birtwistle, associate director at the Ada Lovelace Institute, said he was “deeply concerned that any attention to bias in AI applications has been explicitly cut out of the new AISI’s scope”. Established in 2023, then-prime minister Rishi Sunak said the institute would “advance the world’s knowledge of AI safety”, including exploring “all the risks from social harms like bias and misinformation, through to the most extreme risks of all”. Describing security and transparency as “mutually reinforcing pillars essential to building public confidence in AI”, Mr Dudfield added: “If the Government pivots away from the issues of what data is used to train AI models, it risks outsourcing those critical decisions to the most powerful internet platforms rather than exploring them in the democratic light of day.” Friday’s announcement comes after the Government began the year pledging to make the UK a world leader in AI and to put the technology at the heart of Whitehall.