Industry should establish voluntary ways of ensuring consumers know when artificial intelligence is taking important decisions for them, a parliamentary report has said.
A new AI council, a proposed industry body for the technology, should consider how to inform consumers when AI is at work, according to the Lords’ report.
The House of Lords Artificial Intelligence Committee heard from expert witnesses that consumers should be told when they were dealing with AI, especially chatbots, “which have gradually begun to replace some forms of online customer service previously performed by humans,” the report said.
Technology think tank Doteveryone suggested to the inquiry that organisations using AI in this way should have to declare it with CCTV-style warnings.
The report, published this week, concluded: “Industry should take the lead in establishing voluntary mechanisms for informing the public when artificial intelligence is being used for significant or sensitive decisions in relation to consumers… The soon-to-be established AI Council, the proposed industry body for AI, should consider how best to develop and introduce these mechanisms.”
Retailers to use AI chatbots include Lidl. The discounter has a ‘winebot’ that helps customers choose wines through Facebook Messenger and recently revealed plans for a more general customer service bot. The supermarket also said the winebot could be used to “sell direct” to customers.
Lisa Byfield-Green, senior retail analyst at LZ Retailytics, said AI was “the next stage on from loyalty schemes” for supermarkets because it “can bring together a lot of data”.
Recommendations that the government should work with industry and experts to establish a UK AI Council were made in October last year in an independent review for the Department for Culture and the Department for Business.
The new report, called ‘AI in the UK: ready, willing and able’, says the inquiry heard concerns over the use of AI for “dynamic or variable pricing systems, which allow businesses to vary their prices in real time”.
While the practice is mostly to adjust prices to market fluctuations, “it is increasingly allowing retailers to adjust prices according to what a specific individual customer is willing or able to pay,” the report said.
The report also warned of the danger of a few big firms monopolising the technology, naming Google, IBM and Microsoft as the current leaders which “must be prevented from becoming overly powerful”.
“The UK has a unique opportunity to shape AI positively for the public’s benefit and to lead the international community in AI’s ethical development, rather than passively accept its consequences,” said committee chairman Lord Clement-Jones.
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