British Academy responds to House of Lords Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence

In response to the House of Lords Select Committee report on Artificial Intelligence, Alun Evans, Chief Executive of the British Academy, said:

“It is absolutely right and proper that ethics be at the heart of the UK’s approach to AI. Scientific and technical developments should go hand in hand with the analytical and human-centred approach provided by the humanities and social sciences.

“We welcome therefore the principles set out by the Committee. As the British Academy argued in our joint report with the Royal Society on data governance, technological advances should be understood in terms of what they can do for human flourishing and the common good.

“As today’s report recognises, the future of work is uncertain. More than ever before, we will need a flexible, creative workforce of the kind we know that humanities and social science degrees produce. So we welcome the Committee's acknowledgement of the importance of the arts and humanities subjects in a world shaped by AI.

“We are now working together with the Royal Society to explore the impact of AI on work and expect to publish our findings in the summer.”