Summary

In a document titled AI in the UK: ready, willing and able? The U.K. House of Lords Select Committee on AI offers a lengthy study on the ethical issues raised by the technology, recommends "that a cross-sector ethical code of conduct, or 'AI code'... be drawn up and promoted" and offer a short set of "five overarching principles" for such a code (Clement-Jones, et.al, 2018:paras 420,417). This reflects the authors' belief that "The UK must seek to actively shape AI's development and utilisation, or risk passively acquiescing to its many likely consequences" (Ibid:7).
The authors also adopt the position that people are misinformed about AI. They quote the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) as stating that there was a "need to be realistic about the public's ability to understand in detail how the technology works", and it would be better to focus on "the consequences of AI, rather than on the way it works", in a way that empowered individuals to exercise their rights (Ibid: para 51). Four of the five principles in fact represent a consequentialist approach, however one principle states that AI "should operate on principles of intelligibility and fairness" (Ibid: para 417).
The report's exhaustive characterization of the risks and issues associated with artificial intelligence is reflected in the range of the principles proposed. In addition to intelligibility and fairness, the principles reflect a purpose for AI, "for the common good and benefit of humanity", privacy rights, the right to be educated "to flourish mentally, emotionally and economically alongside artificial intelligence", and the recommendation that the principle of nonmaleficence be embedded in AI (Ibid).

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