7 Key Lessons for AI Regulation: Avoiding the Mistakes of Harmful Industries

ddiction Economy Thought for Today - The point of Joe Woof and I's work is to learn lessons from the success of some of the world's most harmful industries and apply them to our future innovations. In response to Gary Marcus two visions of AI Future, here are our 7 lessons so far for hashtag#AI.

1. A free-for-all market is a catastrophe. The reason we have billions killed & harmed by addiction economy sectors is because they had a free market at the beginning of their life & we closed the door too late, or the market for a harmful product was re-opened for purposes not aligned to public health with little thought for the collateral damage.

2. Business, like water, will find a way. Whatever regulation you create it will find the cracks and seep through to ensure it makes money, irrespective of its profession of 'responsible innovation'. Be very careful of loopholes and what you are shepherding in by your restrictions.

3. Ensure evidence of harm and impacts on society are rigorously researched as early as possible and that you listen and act on the evidence. We know, as Gary Marchant & Wendell Wallach have repeatedly said, 'the pacing problem' of tech is real & serious, it moves too quick for us to regulate. But it really doesn't move that quick. We know what some of the problems are now, and can anticipate some of the future ones. Act now, to learn from 1 & 2 above, be flexible, not rigid, but don't not act.

4. Know that they will bullshit you every single step of the way to resist regulation which restricts their freedom to do what they like. They will also sue you, threaten you & lie to you. Sometimes they really think & feel the things they say, mostly it is just disinformation to help them get their way. Be smart, savvy & get good lawyers.

5. Knowing what positive you want to see in the world, rather than just what you don't want them to do is key. Take hashtag#consequencescanning seriously & know what you do want to happen, and legislate for that, not just what you don't want to happen.

6. Public health, public good, a 'pro-society' approach should be at the heart of innovation, which they say it is, but shareholder primacy & predatory VC's will soon ensure it won't be, even if it was in the first place. Sometimes they need a nudge to make sure it is, that's what regulators are for, to get us the good things they promised.

7. Be innovative in regulation, but regulate now & plan future regulation ahead of time to kick in when you are sure. Create citizen processes like assemblies to understand what public good is, what you are regulating towards, not just away from & for legitimacy. Don't let business vision shape the process, keep them at arms length.

Are we being harsh hashtag#AI folks? Gary Marcus, Gary Marchant, Wendell Wallach, Virginia Dignum, Joanna Bryson, Nita Farahany, Tony Curzon Price, Dr Roger Miles