UK Cut AI Funding in 1973, Pushing Research Toward Industry Over Ethics
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Aug 25
UK Cut AI Funding in 1973, Pushing Research Toward Industry Over Ethics
1 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Aug 25
Summary
A 1973 UK funding cut for machine learning, robotics and AI redirected researchers away from studying the technology’s social risks and toward work with immediate industrial value.
The shift followed the Lighthill report, which Jonathan Michie said was set up to curb support for those fields, undermining efforts to keep ethical questions central to AI research.
That reversal came just after a 1972 international meeting at Villa Serbelloni in Italy, where experts led by Donald Michie warned about political tyranny, loss of human autonomy and social coercion through automation.
Jonathan Michie said his father’s later attempt to reconvene the Serbelloni group with humanities scholars failed, leaving those early warnings largely unheard as AI research priorities changed.