A recent report from the Wall Street Journal revealed that Google has disbanded an advisory board originally formed to oversee the review and monitoring of DeepMind Health. The plans for the panel, dubbed as Advanced Technological External Advisory Council, were dropped earlier this month over issues with the board selection process.
The review panel was established in 2016, two years after Google acquired DeepMind. Since then, some of DeepMind’s AI work in the healthcare sector has been reviewed by the panel. However, people familiar with the incident claimed that Google came under fire for selecting controversial people to sit on the advisory board.
Furthermore, panel members also questioned certain aspects of their work such as the amount of information they have access to, the power their recommendations bear, and if DeepMind could retain its independence from Google. It was reported that Google initially planned to restructure the advisory board last year following disagreements but instead opted to dissolve it.
Disbanding the Advisory Board
The formation of the advisory board was part of Google’s efforts to comply with the demand of governments and leaders across the globe for more guidelines on the ethical development of AI technologies. Just recently, the European Commission proposed a set of AI ethical guidelines for developers to adopt.
However, while officials encourage tech companies like Google and Facebook to adopt and practice these guidelines, many are also calling for these companies to do their own in-house monitoring. Google has been doing its oversight in-house for years. Unfortunately, the company faced significant challenges along the way.
Prior to the disbandment of the AI advisory board earlier this month, Google had also disbanded a similar panel last year when the tech giant began planning for an independent group to monitor its AI healthcare works. As their final task, the review board will be publishing its last report that will include recommendations on how future review boards should be equipped to accomplish their tasks.
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