AI washing must be tackled, or we face an AI wash-out
The government’s plan to realize significant growth via AI risk falling short if we do not limit AI washing in all its insidious iterations.
Ongoing discussions on the economic prospects for the UK have left Labour leaders with an unenviable task. They are under immense pressure to propel growth, secure the UK as a tech leader, and steady the country amidst ever changing economic tides. As part of that conversation, many have noted the promising uplift that AI adoption could deliver, following a landmark few years of rapid technological progress.
The International Investment Summit in October 2024 set out these intentions, with the government announcing major investment plans in emerging growth areas, including AI and infrastructure. But is AI as bankable as some economic commentators believe?
AI fatigue
I recently attended a Californian tech tradeshow. Amongst the excitement and future-gazing that one expects, there was also a sense of AI fatigue. Seasoned tech watchers are already forecasting an emerging story they know all too well: the pioneering breakthrough technology, the fervent early adoption, the mass market hype cycle – and then, the growing gap between expectations and reality, the over-investments weighing heavily on balance sheets, the skeptical backlash, the burst bubble.
Is today’s AI market in danger of repeating such a cycle? To answer that question, we need to take a step back.
The release of ChatGPT in late 2022 almost single-handedly changed the AI landscape. Generative AI is now a technology that everybody is aware of, and the scale of that cultural moment has had two key consequences. Firstly, it has meant many people now hear ‘AI’ and think ‘chatbot’ – overlooking the fact that generative AI is just one subset within a field that has a broader, deeply-researched meaning and impact. Secondly, that speculation and confusion about what ‘AI’ now means has left people susceptible to hype and misinformation about the technology.
A business today surveying their options for AI faces significant hurdles. Spurred by a wave of AI hype, there are now a plethora of allegedly AI-powered solutions, too often with underexplained, overstated, or fundamentally misleading claims about AI components capabilities. You don’t have to work in tech to spot this happening. Adverts for AI-powered toothbrushes are rampant on social media, for example.
This phenomenon – one which is rapidly on the rise – is known as AI washing.
AI washing
AI washing can come in different forms. Sometimes it means significantly exaggerating how advanced or capable the AI technology in a product really is. Other time taking conventional or legacy technology and re-labelling it as AI. And sometimes it simply means obscuring the human labor that actually powers a product.
The government’s plan to realize significant growth via AI risk falling short if we do not limit AI washing in all its insidious iterations. Earlier this year, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission levied $400,000 in response to civil penalties for misleading statements about AI. The UK, a leader in the tech space and a formidable player in the AI race, has an opportunity to go further, putting purpose-built frameworks in place to mitigate against this growing phenomenon.
AI-washed products and services threaten real failures for businesses, consumers, and the many public services that will seek to rely on AI in coming years. Left unchecked, misrepresentation of AI capabilities in critical areas such as healthcare, finance, and security could have disastrous consequences. If AI is to be the shot in the arm that the economy needs, it’s crucial that we don’t allow falsely labelled products to damage user trust and purchasing confidence.
Effective implementation
The UK has successfully played the role of catalyst in important international conversations around AI and its effective implementation. Now, equally concerted investments should be made into AI as part of the national industrial strategy: nurturing the businesses building it, protecting the consumers affected by it, and guiding, supporting, and empowering the businesses adopting it.
Thoughtfully-implemented and well-governed AI will revolutionize industries and drive unprecedented efficiencies globally. However, the realization of this potential hinges on one crucial factor: trust. If consumers, businesses, and policymakers cannot trust how AI is marketed, sold, and deployed, the foundation of this technological revolution will be compromised.
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