Press Release
from Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School
CAMBRIDGE, MA and CHARLOTTE, NC – Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and Bank of America today announced the formation of The Council on the Responsible Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), a new effort to address critical questions surrounding this far-reaching and rapidly evolving application for data and technology.
From finance and healthcare to retail and manufacturing, AI is poised to reshape not only the interface between people and machines but also fundamental questions of privacy and equality. The Council’s mission is to ensure that policy and ethical issues keep pace with AI and machine learning so that this game-changing technology serves people–not the other way around.
“Artificial intelligence and machine learning have potential to improve our lives in all sorts of exciting ways,” said Dan Schrag, Co-Director of the Belfer Center’s Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program. “But there are also risks. The Council will help investigate how to use these technologies in a responsible manner across various domains.”
“It is difficult to overstate AI’s potential impact on society,” said Ash Carter, Director of the Belfer Center and former Secretary of Defense (2015-2017). “The Council will leverage Harvard’s unmatched convening power to help ensure that this impact is overwhelmingly on the side of public good.”
“The Council will engage a spectrum of thought leaders to address the most pressing moral, legal, and ethical questions surrounding the future application of artificial intelligence,” said Cathy Bessant, Bank of America’s Chief Operations and Technology Officer. “As business, public, and private entities rush to realize the efficiencies and effectiveness of AI, we will examine how these benefits are balanced with the human components of AI to determine how best to reskill the workforce for an AI world.”
The Council will convene leaders from groups including government, business, academia, and civil society to learn about the latest technological developments in AI and machine learning, discuss emerging legal, moral, and policy implications, and investigate ways of developing responsible AI platforms. Joining the discussions will be world-renowned experts from Harvard and MIT in fields spanning computer science, national security, cybersecurity, technology, natural science, economics, and government. Participants will address pressing issues, including:
- Privacy: How can the private and public sectors benefit from new advances in machine learning of large data sets without compromising concerns for privacy?
- Rights, Justice, and Equality: How do we conceive of human rights online? Whose responsibility is it to ensure that algorithms respect these rights? How does artificial intelligence threaten or aid the equality of different groups?
- Transparency: How is AI architected and deployed with trust by design, including building systems that lead to “explainable” AI?
- Workforce: How do we democratize AI learning across an enterprise’s stakeholders; emphasizing augmentation vs. replacement; reskilling the workforce that is displaced by AI?
Through rigorous research, the development of best practices, and an open and transparent dialogue, the founding members of the Council seek to realize AI’s positive potential for all consumers who can benefit from the speed, convenience, and thoughtful use of these emerging technologies.
As the founding donor, Bank of America is supporting the work of the new Council for an initial three-year period. Faculty, researchers, and staff at Harvard Kennedy School will establish the Council’s research agenda, and administer all other components of the program, which will be housed at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and will work with digital HKS, a school-wide initiative focused on research and education on digital technology policy.
Contact: Doug Gavel, Director of Media Relations, Harvard Kennedy School at (617) 495-1115.
About Harvard Kennedy School
Harvard Kennedy School aims to improve public policy and public leadership in the United States and around the world through research, teaching, and direct engagement with policymakers and public leaders. Roughly 20,000 alumni of the School’s degree programs and 50,000 people who have taken executive education courses at the School work in nearly every country. In addition, faculty, staff, and students of the School are currently undertaking projects to advance knowledge and strengthen public policy and leadership in dozens of countries. Around the world, the skills and energy of the Harvard Kennedy School community are dedicated to helping make people’s lives safer, freer, and more prosperous.
About Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
The Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs is the hub of Harvard Kennedy School's research, teaching, and training in international security and diplomacy, environmental and resource issues, and science and technology policy. The Center has a dual mission: (1) to provide leadership in advancing policy-relevant knowledge about the most important challenges of international security and other critical issues where science, technology, environmental policy, and international affairs intersect; and (2) to prepare future generations of leaders for these arenas.
About Bank of America
Bank of America is one of the world's leading financial institutions, serving individual consumers, small and middle-market businesses and large corporations with a full range of banking, investing, asset management and other financial and risk management products and services. The company provides unmatched convenience in the United States, serving approximately 47 million consumer and small business relationships with approximately 4,500 retail financial centers, approximately 16,000 ATMs, and award-winning digital banking with approximately 35 million active users, including approximately 24 million mobile users. Bank of America is a global leader in wealth management, corporate and investment banking and trading across a broad range of asset classes, serving corporations, governments, institutions and individuals around the world. Bank of America offers industry-leading support to approximately 3 million small business owners through a suite of innovative, easy-to-use online products and services. The company serves clients through operations in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and more than 35 countries. Bank of America Corporation stock (NYSE: BAC) is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.