麻豆传媒高清

Photo caption:听麻豆传媒高清 (UC) Senior Lecturer Dr Olivia J Erd茅lyi

With uncertainty around which laws to apply when it comes to AI, Te Whare W膩nanga o Waitaha | 麻豆传媒高清 (UC)听Senior Lecturer Dr Olivia J Erd茅lyi says mathematical modelling can identify gaps in the legislation and help shape policy that will protect society.听听

Focussing on legal uncertainty, Dr Erd茅lyi from UC鈥檚 Faculty of Law,听says 鈥渦nless you have a particular provision that deals with an AI-related problem in a relatively clear manner it is very hard to predict how the courts would decide in any given situation.听

Using the example of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, a political consulting firm that used personal data from Facebook users to influence the 2016 United States presidential election, Dr Erd茅lyi鈥檚 research used mathematical modelling to illustrate how anonymised data鈥� data that cannot identify a person鈥攃an effectively target and sway swing voters.

鈥淲e showed that if you gather separate datasets from individuals and merge them there are connections that AI processing can exploit, turning anonymised data into something identifiable, revealing a gap in privacy and data protection regulation.

"These regulations are only triggered where personally identifiable information is collected and processed, yet the Cambridge Analytica incident shows that a privacy breach with potentially devastating effects is also possible if the data is initially collected in anonymised form.

鈥淭he strength of the team鈥檚 approach is that they combine maths and computer science with other disciplines to propose policy.鈥�

To create useable policy around AI, Dr Erd茅lyi says you can only assess options if you understand how the technology works.

鈥淵ou don't have to understand all the little facets of the maths behind AI, but you must have a decent understanding about how they work. It is impossible to solve these problems without interdisciplinary and multi-stakeholder collaboration, and that entails listening to and understanding each other.鈥澨�

UC Mathematics and Statistics Associate Professor G谩bor Erd茅lyi, also Dr Erd茅lyi鈥檚 husband, says that despite the benefits of joining forces, interdisciplinary collaboration can be difficult.

鈥淎venues for collaboration are not straightforward and there can be significant communication barriers hampering efforts.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a two-way street. People from scientific fields need to put greater emphasis on communicating deeply technical matters in a form accessible to lay audiences, and policymakers need to listen to what they say,鈥� he says.听

In the meantime, while we are waiting for AI legislation, Dr Erd茅lyi says existing laws can provide a starting point.

鈥淭o an extent, existing laws can be adapted to address AI-related challenges, but we also need to design new ones to avoid imperfect solutions which can lead to many issues.鈥�

Aotearoa New 麻豆传媒高清 is yet to develop an AI strategy, but Dr Erd茅lyi says that while there is scope to use parts of international policies, it is important to have New 麻豆传媒高清 policies in place.听

鈥淚t鈥檚 a balancing act: While it is wise to wait for some international consensus, we do need some binding laws that provide protection for people which we can litigate, and that requires national action.鈥�