Don’t eat that berry. 

‘New’ anything almost always pairs nicely with a negative reaction. As a species, we are hardwired to fear things we haven’t seen before and it has kept us alive for close to seven million years. Eating the wrong fruit could have catastrophic results so it was best avoided. We have extended this negative reaction to just about everything: the steam engine, the car, literature, radio plays, mini skirts, hip hop, the Internet and now…Artificial Intelligence. 

AI, like the ideas and technologies that have gone before it, is new and novel and for some it feels like an overwhelming existential threat will bring about the end of humankind. For others it seems like an enormous opportunity that could see humanity advance at a pace previously unimaginable by harnessing the power of our collective knowledge.

So what do we do? We need to meet the new and novel with a new and novel approach. 

The challenge before government and regulators is daunting, especially with the current attempts to curb the worst of social media taking place long after the iron horse is out of the barn. Cary Coglianese, a US-based expert on governmental use of AI wrote in Competition Policy Monthly that: “Machine learning’s future is a dynamic one and regulators need to equip themselves to make smart decisions in a changing environment. This means regulators must remain engaged with the industry they are overseeing and continue learning constantly.”

This is a fundamental change from traditional regulation. Instead of building a protectionist box that focuses on creating rigid boundaries that cannot be crossed, regulation will need to attempt to move at the same speed as industry in order to allow collective intelligence to be safely harnessed for the collective good of humanity. This is a tall order for regulators and will challenge and shift the role of regulation from creating static rulesets to engaging with AI in real time and understanding. 

It will be an even greater challenge to business, which will need to shift its mindset away from the cat and mouse relationship that has traditionally been the hallmark of the regulator and the regulated. Instead, they will need to value regulators as a critical partner and bring them inside the decision-making process. 

This will be a new and dynamic approach to regulation for both sides, but one that needs to be rapidly embraced for the successful integration of AI into business and society in a way that provides the greatest benefit and thoughtful management of the negative outcomes and disruptions. 

Because like it or not, the berry has already been eaten.