Status: 03/20/2023 11:21 am
In a statement, the German Ethics Council calls for clear rules for the use of artificial intelligence. Software systems do not have reason, do not act themselves and therefore cannot take responsibility, it says.
The German Ethics Council has spoken out in favor of strict limitations on the use of artificial intelligence (AI). “The use of AI must expand human development and must not reduce it,” said Alena Buyx, Chairwoman of the German Ethics Council, in Berlin at the presentation of the statement “Humans and Machines – Challenges from Artificial Intelligence”.
“AI must not replace humans,” emphasized Buyx. Software systems do not have reason, would not act themselves and therefore cannot take responsibility, says the statement.
Alena Buyx from the German Ethics Council demands that artificial intelligence must expand human development and not reduce it.
Image: dpa
Opinion on four application areas
A working group of the Ethics Council had prepared the statement over the past two years. The almost 300-page statement deals with four areas of application: medicine, school education, public communication and opinion-forming, and public administration. The assessment of AI must “always be context-, application- and person-specific,” the committee explained.
The delegation of activities to machines could “have very different effects for different groups of people, actors and those affected,” explained the spokeswoman for the working group, Judith Simon.
Avoid loss of medical competence
For the medical sector, the recommendations of the Ethics Council are aimed, among other things, at quality assurance in the development and use of AI products. In addition, losses in medical competence must be avoided and the privacy of patients must be reconciled with intensive data use in medical research.
According to the recommendations, the use of AI in school education should not be controlled by technological visions, but should be based on fundamental educational ideas. In the area of public communication and opinion-forming, the Ethics Council recommends, among other things, further development of the rules for online platforms with regard to the selection and moderation of content as well as personalized advertising and data trading.
For the use of AI in public administration, the Ethics Council recommends approaches that protect against discrimination and prevent blind following of machine recommendations. Furthermore, he demands that individual cases and the right of inspection and objection of those affected be guaranteed.
Independent body on ethical issues
The German Ethics Council is an independent body in Germany. He deals with ethical issues and challenges in the fields of science, medicine and healthcare.
The 26 members are appointed by the President of the German Bundestag. The Bundestag or the Federal Government can commission the Ethics Council to advise on specific topics.