Along with Tim Berners Lee, Nigel Shadbolt is the founder of the UK Open Data Institute. In this podcast he talks about the ethics of AI.

Mr Shadbolt says there is a growing renaissance of interest in the field of ethics and AI. Earlier this year, a new Institute for Ethics in AI was created at Oxford University with Mr Shadbolt as its chair. He says the institute’s aim is to examine the fairness and transparency of the many uses of AI so that they “empower and not oppress us”.

“The algorithms and the data of scale can be really transformational. But, on the other hand, we need to reflect on the fact that there'll be two questions we've been talking about - about just how is that data used, and is it fair representation and have has the population consented?”

Mr Shadbolt says it is an ongoing conversation with science technologist and engineers on the one hand and legislators and ethicists on the other. “Because these things, at the end of the day, express our values, what we think are important to seek to preserve in the societies we build,” he points out.