LG joins the virtue-signalling crowd with AI standardisation plug

LG is the latest technology company to humbly join the ranks of technology disciples preaching standardisation and, of course, its idea is better than everyone else’s.

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is in full-swing in Las Vegas, and in the midst of a swathe of technology announcements, LG found some spare time to lecture the room on the importance of a standardised approach to artificial intelligence. That is, of course, before being joined on stage by a partner to talk about how it has developed its own framework, adding to the growing wave of fragmentation.

The technology industry is one which elects to stretch the definition of certain words and phrases to such a degree many will wonder whether the dictionaries are thought of as ancient artefacts to be revered but never given attention. In the ‘C’ section, LG President and CTO I.P. Park might find the word ‘contradiction’, and it might offer some insight to read the definition.

Looking around the world, the European Commission has put together a group to create an ethics framework to guide the development of AI, Facebook has backed a German initiative called the ‘Institute for Ethics in Artificial Intelligence’, the UK Government has formed its own AI Council, the US has launched the ‘American AI Initiative’, Google created ‘DeepMind Ethics & Society’ and there are countless others.

Each of these parties are aiming to develop a standardised approach for the development of AI, weighing up the commercial ambitions of industry alongside privacy issues, the risk of bias and the preservation of fairness in a currently lop-sided digital economy. Each party is attempting to ‘own’ the space, dictate the conditions of the playing field for the benefit of its own interests.

This is where self-righteous executives preaching the benefits of standardisation have to be taken with a pinch of salt. The more frameworks which are in place simply heightens the risk of fragmentation. In this case, LG is pursuing its own agenda, implementing a framework to achieve its own aims under the guise of enhancing co-operation and standardisation.

These statements reflect badly on LG, but everyone in the industry is doing exactly the same. The European Commission, the White House, Downing Street, Google, Facebook or whoever. These standardisation frameworks are all slightly different because they serve the aims of the puppet masters.

From LG’s perspective, AI is the future. This is a company where the heritage is in consumer electronics but is positioning itself to capitalise on the growing interest in ‘intelligence’ and embedded connectivity in everything and anything. LG’s robot vacuum cleaner will not only recognise patterns, but also collect data to learn from previous mistakes, such as getting stuck in gaps and corners.

This of course is not a new idea. Embedded ‘intelligence’ and the ability for products to learn and adapt, has been discussed at length for years. LG is perhaps behind the trend, though as the industry is yet to achieve mass market adoption, there is still time for it to catch up. However, whenever someone talks about standardisation, be wary.

There is a reason this party is not joining an existing group, it probably does not serve its own ambitions the most effectively. Instead, we are probably likely to see the creation of more groups, alliances, councils, think-tanks and boards. Standardisation is the aim, but fragmentation is looking much more likely.