“We need to have explainable AI, or not use it at all”
Jon Crowcroft has been the Marconi Professor of Communications Systems in the Computer Laboratory since October 2001. He has worked in the area of Internet support for multimedia communications for over 30 years. Three main topics of interest have been scalable multicast routing, practical approaches to traffic management, and the design of deployable end-to-end protocols. Current active research areas are Opportunistic Communications, Social Networks, Privacy Preserving Analytics, and techniques and algorithms to scale infrastructure-free mobile systems. He leans towards a “build and learn” paradigm for research. From 2016-2018, he was Programme Chair at the Turing, the UK’s national Data Science and AI Institute and is now researcher-at-large there.
Can you tell us why you joined the SPATIAL Advisory Board?
I’m interested in practical systems and ways that AI can play out and maximise societal value. The SPATIAL partners have a wide variety of interesting extensive experience.
What are your expectations for a project like SPATIAL?
A project of SPATIAL should be oriented towards the deployment of trustworthy systems. This is a very ambitious project and counts with a remarkable team to achieve it.
Wht is the biggest challenge you see for SPATIAL?
Certainly, the biggest challenges for a project of this nature are the incumbents and their business models.
At the same time, one should not forget about the non-technical barriers to establishing (or losing) trustworthiness of complex (AI) systems.
Both are really big challenges that SPATIAL will have to face during the execution of their activities.
Given your experience in the evolution of the internet and open technologies, how can AI embrace the open movements and avoid lock-in and black boxes?
We need to have explainable AI, or not use it at all. We must make sure it is sustainable, or it has no future. It had better be in service to humanity and not the other way around.