主播大秀

Four hundred guests, a score of top-notch speakers, two rooms of cutting edge technology demonstrations, two programme recordings, and an orchestra playing music composed by a machine. All in a day’s work for this week’s in the Radio Theatre at Broadcasting House, organised by the 主播大秀 Blue Room.

In this, the third year of our AI themed event, the focus was on responsibility, and how we can tackle the many issues raised by the increased use of AI and ML. Emphasising the 主播大秀’s commitment to lead by doing, Chief Operating Officer Grace Boswood began the event by announcing:

• The 主播大秀’s first ethics guidelines for in-house machine learning

• The publication of the outcomes of significant research examining global attitudes to technology and society

• New data apprenticeships the 主播大秀 is collaborating on with a range of other organisations.

In the first panel, host Tina Daheley discussed the twin challenges of responsible data handling and ensuring machine learning is fair to those affected. With panellists Sana Khareghani from the Office for AI, Sandra Wachter from the Oxford Internet Institute and Indra Joshi from NHSX, the discussions ranged from minimising bias to enlisting public support through demonstrating tangible benefits.

The next session – a live recording of Radio 4’s ‘The Media Show’ - focused on machines making decisions for our children, and considered whether it was enough to educate young people to be ‘algorithm-literate’ or if more regulation was needed.

Spencer Kelly, from the technology programme Click, was brave enough to provide on-stage demonstrations of the 主播大秀’s new , which helps children negotiate the online world from the time they get their first smart phone. The second demonstration was a synthetic video weather forecast. The weather forecast can generate hundreds of flawlessly realistic versions personalised by locality or other variables. It prompted a serious debate about whether the 主播大秀 should ‘fake’ its reports in this way. The view in the theatre and in the ‘Digital Human’ themed Fair outside seemed to be as long as it’s made clear that the content is synthetic then it could be a powerful tool in our push to provide more personalised services.

At the Fair, automated journalism rubbed shoulders with avatars, we made eye contact with mini-robot holograms, competed with machines to spot news stories and watched an ‘ML’ cocktail-dispensing robot scan our faces and decide which drink we ‘deserved’. The conference hashtag - #bbctechconf - was used enthusiastically throughout the day with one delegate observing, “my face broke the #gin machine. It looks at you and predicts your poison. It poured me a triple sloe gin before the human leapt in to reset saying something about how it’s not supposed to do that...!

The 主播大秀’s New Experiences UX team were on hand with some clever future-facing journalism on a news stand that threw us forward to 2040 with the help of an unashamedly retro flat-capped paper-seller, ensuring we didn’t leave without news that the 主播大秀 had created the digital media currency the ReithPiece, while the self-care industry had dangerously depleted the world’s Sandalwood forests.

One of the most important things the conference did was to emphasise the notion that machine learning is about more than just a dense concoction of data and maths but also involves creativity, as the 主播大秀 Philharmonic Orchestra performed a three-part work jointly composed by Robert Laidlaw and an AI ‘composer’, and forced us to ask ‘who gets the credit here?’

After the performance we entered a disinformation dystopia in which 主播大秀 News’ Editorial Director Kamal Ahmed dished out questions to a range of guests. Disinformation is an area the 主播大秀 is spending a lot of time on – not least through its ‘Beyond Fake News’ work, and it was valuable to hear from World Service Group Director Jamie Angus. The panel proffered suggestions on tackling disinformation such as adding ‘friction’ to the sharing of suspect content and getting into schools early with effective education about the dangers of disinformation; but the danger remains ever present and it was clear that none of the panellists believe our current defences are strong enough. Are broadcasters operating a Tetris model in a Minecraft world? mused writer Rachel Botsman.

Thanks to Cassian Harrison from 主播大秀 Four we were also treated to a sneak preview of Ian Hislop’s programme about the history of ‘fake news’ due to air on the channel that night (spoiler: it was brilliant). And while we were in the mood for some comedy, perfectly punctured any danger of a mid-afternoon conference slump with a tech themed set. Who amongst us hasn’t chuckled at a social media pal with a chronic case of ‘Boomerangitis’?

We closed the conference with a session recorded for the ‘Beyond Today’ podcast, and Jamie Bartlett, Natalie Cargill and Stephanie Hare offered thought-provoking views on everything from how facial recognition should be regulated to how authorities might be more generally held to account about the more invasive uses of AI.

Regulation had been a recurring theme of the conference, with Facebook’s Simon Cross and Children’s Commissioner for England Anne Longfield amongst those suggesting we needed more rules to follow. There was also a clarion call for all of us to speak out when we see these powerful technologies used in ways we’re uncomfortable with or that we feel might discriminate or damage, because if we don’t, it’ll be too late. We need to educate ourselves and those using AI need to work strenuously to communicate their decision-making. As Jamie Bartlett commented, AI is starting to put ethical distance between those of us building it and those of us affected by it.

In her opening speech, Grace Boswood had confided her childhood dream of being an air hostess. We were honoured that our 400 guests decided to fly with us on a damp Monday morning, touching down eight hours later having listened, watched, learned, questioned and networked. And wanting to fly is evidently something women in technology hold in common. Ada Lovelace, who we were preparing to celebrate the following day, studied bird anatomy and mechanics as she tried to build a machine to shake off the surly bonds of earth. AI will offer us new ways to get airborne – it might even help us finally get our hands on those Jetson flying cars. To stretch the metaphor to breaking point, the conference helped us think about how we police those skies, how we make flight available to all and how we avoid flying too close to the sun. As Nejra van Zalk from Imperial College observed “All of us are part of a massive social experiment and we don't know what the outcome will be.” We have to work together to make sure we fly safely.