Google Deepmind's chief business officer Colin Murdoch has urged those developing artificial intelligence (AI) to do so in a safe, ethical and inclusive way.
Google Deepmind, formerly DeepMind Technologies, is a subsidiary of Google’s parent company Alphabet and is focused on developing general-purpose AI technology.
Speaking to a gathering of thousands of tech innovators at the Collision conference in Toronto, Canada, Murdoch highlighted the importance of including diverse voices in the creation of AI in order to avoid amplifying existing biases.
He urged those developing AI to focus on building a “strong and responsible” community. “The people building and deploying AI need to represent the broader society,” he said.
Murdoch pointed to Google Deepmind’s efforts in ensuring it builds AI systems responsibly, for example, by working with internal and external stakeholders across a range of specializations including ethicists and policy researchers.
When the company was developing its AlphaFold system, which uses AI to predict a protein’s 3D structure, Murdoch said it invited feedback from more than 30 external stakeholders across a range of fields including biosecurity, biology, and pharma.
“No one organization can do this alone which is why we work with so many organizations, including governments and regulators, so we can share insights, to allow innovation, to allow for these amazing breakthroughs but also to mitigate the potential risks,” Murdoch said.
He also spoke about how AI is being used today and how it could be deployed in the future, highlighting that Google Deepmind’s AlphaFold is being used by researchers at the University of Oxford to accelerate the development of a malaria vaccine and by researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder to investigate antibiotic resistance.
He also showed the crowd a video of two small robots that have learned how to play soccer and said that, as this type of AI technology is advanced, robots could be deployed to mines and other potentially dangerous workplaces like construction sites or to help in disaster recovery.
Murdoch wrapped up his speech by noting that, while he had his “AI eureka moment” 10 years ago when he first met Google Deepmind co-founder Shane Legg, in the last six to 12 months there has been “a collective AI lightbulb moment.”
“I know there are even bigger breakthroughs on the horizon… but it’s really important that we do it in a way that’s safe, ethical, and inclusive. If we can do that, if we can be responsible stewards, then I have great hope for our future,” he concluded.
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