The Irony Or The Ecstasy? The UK Centre For Data Ethics And Innovation

You would be forgiven for uttering a very long string of properly ripe expletives on learning that the current UK government has the cheek to create a "Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation"!  Personally, I think they've missed a trick with the name. With a little more thought, the acronym could've been "DECEIT" - and maybe in some languages it would be - so let's go with that.

You might say that it's better to have, rather than not have, an 'independent' policy body focused on the use of data and "artificial intelligence", even if it's set up by a government controlled by those who masterminded and/or benefited from the most egregious abuse of data ethics in UK history.

Or you might be relieved by the notion that it's easier for the dominant political party of the day to control the ethical agenda and results achieve "the best possible outcomes" if the source of policy on data ethics is centralised, especially within a body being hastily set up on the back of a quick and dirty consultation paper released into the febrile, Brexit-dominated summer period before any aspirational statutory governance controls are in place. 

At any rate, we should all note that:

"[DECEIT], in dialogue with government, will need to carefully prioritise and scope the specific projects within its work programme. This should include an assessment of the value generated by the project, in terms of impact on innovation and public trust in the ethical use of data and AI, the rationale for [DECEIT] doing the work (relative to other organisations, inside or outside Government) and urgency of the work, for example in terms of current concerns amongst the public or business."

...

"In formulating its advice, the Centre will also seek to understand and take into consideration the plurality of views held by the public about the way in which data and AI should be governed. Where these views diverge, as is often the case with any new technology, the Centre will not be able to make recommendations that will satisfy everyone. Instead, it will be guided by the need to take ethically justified positions mindful of public opinion and respecting dissenting views. As part of this process it will seek to clearly articulate the complexities and trade offs involved in any recommendation."

Political point of view is absolutely critical here. This UK government does not accept that the Leave campaign or Cambridge Analytica etc did anything 'wrong' with people's data. Senior Brexiteers say the illegality resulting in fines by the Electoral Commission and further investigation by the ICO and the police are merely politically motivated 'allegations' by do-good Remainers. Ministers have dismissed their own "promises" (which others have called "fake news" outright lies and distortion) as merely "a series of possibilities". There is no contrition. Instead, the emerging majority of people who want Brexit to be subjected to a binding vote by the electorate are regarded as ignoring "public opinion" or "the will of the people" somehow enshrined forever in a single advisory referendum in 2016; and as therefore expressing merely "dissenting views".

Against this gaslit version of reality, the creation of DECEIT is chilling.

Meanwhile, you might ask why there needs to be separate silo for "Data Ethics and Innovation" when we have the Alan Turing Institute and at least a dozen other bodies, as well as the Information Commissioner, Electoral Commission and the police. Surely the responsibility for maintaining ethical behaviour and regulatory compliance are already firmly embedded in their DNA?

I did wonder at the time of its formation whether the ATI was really human-centric and never received an answer. And it's somewhat worrying that the ATI has responded to the consultation with the statement "We agree on the need for a government institution to devote attention to ethics". To be fair, however, one can read that statement as dripping with irony. Elsewhere, too, the ATI's response has the air of being written by someone with clenched teeth wondering if the government really knows what it's doing in this area, anymore than it knows how to successfully exit the EU:

We would encourage clarity around which of these roles and objectives the Centre will be primarily or solely responsible for delivering (and in these cases, to justify the centralisation of these functions), and which will be undertaken alongside other organisations.

... We would encourage more clarity around the Centre’s definitions of AI and emerging technologies, as this will help clarify the areas that the Centre will focus on.

Reinterpreting some of the ATI's other concerns a little more bluntly yields further evidence that the ATI smells the same rat that I do:

• DECEIT will have such a broad agenda and so many stakeholders to consider that you wonder if it will have adequate resources, and would simply soak up resources from other stakeholders without actually achieving anything [conspiracy theorists: insert inference of Tory intent here, to starve the other stakeholders into submission];
• the summary of "pressing issues in this field" misses key issues around the accountability and audibility of algorithms, the adequacy of consent in context and whether small innovative players will be able to bear inevitable regulations;
• also omitted from the consultation paper are the key themes of privacy, identity, transparency in data collection/use and data sharing (all of which are the subject of ongoing investigation by the ICO, the police and others in relation to the Leave campaign);
• the ATI's suggested "priority projects" imply its concern at the lack of traction in identifying accountability and liability for clearly unethical algorithms;
• powers given to DECEIT should reinforce its independence and "make its abolition or undermining politically difficult";
• DECEIT's activities and recommendations should be public;
• how will the "dialogue with government" be managed to avoid DECEIT being captured by the government of the day?
• how will "trade offs", "public opinion" and "dissenting views" be defined and handled (see my concerns above)?

I could add to this list concerns about the government's paternalistic outlook instead of a human-centric view of data and technology that goes beyond merely 'privacy by design'. The human condition, not Big Tech/Finance/Politics/Government etc, must benefit from advances in technology.

At any rate, given its parentage, I'm afraid that I shall "remain" utterly sceptical of the need for DECEIT, its machinations and output - unless and until it consistently demonstrates its independence, good sense, not to mention ethics.