Ahead of next week’s AI Safety Summit hosted by the U.K., the nation’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has laid down seven principles it wants to see incorporated into AI’s rollout:

• Accountability: Developers must be legally responsible and liable for what their AIs deliver to customers.
• Access: Regulators should have access upon request to AI system inputs.
• Diversity: AI firms should encourage diverse business models, including open and closed access.
• Choice: AI companies should offer businesses a wide range of choices so each business can determine its best uses for AI.
• Flexibility: AI companies should give customers the flexibility to use various AI platforms as needed. 
• Fairness: Regulators should forbid anti-competitive conduct, “including self-preferencing, tying, or bundling.”
• Transparency: AI companies should disclose the risks and limits of AI-generated content.

“The speed at which AI is becoming part of everyday life for people and businesses is dramatic,” Sarah Cardell, CEO of the CMA, said in a statement listing the principles. 

“There is real potential for this technology to turbocharge productivity and make millions of everyday tasks easier – but we can’t take a positive future for granted,” she added. “We are ready to intervene where necessary.”

The CMA listed its principles as a starting point for discussions and negotiations with industry as a formal regulatory structure evolves.

The agency also highlighted two potential dangers.

One is that the AI industry would lack enough competition to keep the market from being dominated by a few giant providers that in turn, might provide shoddy products at high prices. The other is if AI companies fail to agree that regulations are necessary to prevent fraud and consumer exploitation.

“The safe development of AI has been a central focus of U.K. policy and will continue to play a significant role in the U.K.’s ambitions of leading the global AI race,” Sridhar Iyengar, managing director in Europe for software firm Zoho told Artificial Intelligence News. 

“While there is public concern over the trustworthiness of AI, we shouldn’t lose sight of the business benefits that it provides, such as forecasting and improved data analysis, and work towards a solution,” he added.

TRENDPOST: Every developed nation is announcing AI policies, rules, and guidelines, in part just to show their publics that governments are aware of what’s happening and looking out for people’s best interests.

The regulatory challenge is not about individual countries making their own rules to govern AI. Instead, it’s whether an enforceable global framework of standards, norms, and rules can be formulated to keep rogue AI projects from navigating loopholes between countries and remaining beyond regulators’ reach.