UK Lords push bill to tame rogue algorithms in public sector

The UK Parliament's second chamber is set to launch a bill designed to regulate the use of algorithms and automated decision-making by public bodies.

There are currently no legal obligations on public authorities to be transparent about when and how they use algorithms to automate decision-making without human intervention or oversight, according to Lord Clement-Jones, Liberal Democrat peer and former chair of the Lords Select Committee on AI, who is proposing the bill.

"The Post Office/Horizon scandal demonstrates the painful human cost when there aren't proper checks in place to challenge these automated systems," he said. The introduction of an EPoS and accounting system in the Post Office led to hundreds of staff being erroneously prosecuted for fraud and false accounting.

"Too often in the UK we legislate when the damage has already been done. We need to be proactive, not reactive, when it comes to protecting ...