{"id":92545,"date":"2026-05-24T14:40:52","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T13:40:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=92545"},"modified":"2026-05-24T14:40:52","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T13:40:52","slug":"the-ten-or-it-it-twenty-commandements-of-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2026\/05\/24\/the-ten-or-it-it-twenty-commandements-of-ai\/","title":{"rendered":"The Ten – or it it twenty? – Commandements of AI"},"content":{"rendered":"

I published this post<\/a> on The Ten Commandments of AI in 2018:<\/p>\n

The Bishop of Oxford, who sits on the House of Lords artificial intelligence committee,\u00a0has come up with a ten commandments of AI:<\/p>\n

AI should be designed for all, and benefit humanity.<\/em><\/p>\n

AI should operate on principles of transparency and fairness, and be well signposted.<\/em><\/p>\n

AI should not be used to transgress the data rights and privacy of individuals, families, or communities.<\/em><\/p>\n

The application of AI should be to reduce\u00a0inequality<\/a>\u00a0of wealth,\u00a0health<\/a>, and opportunity.<\/em><\/p>\n

AI should not be used for criminal intent, nor to subvert the values of our\u00a0democracy<\/a>, nor truth, nor courtesy in public discourse.<\/em><\/p>\n

The primary purpose of AI should be to enhance and augment, rather than replace, human labour and creativity.<\/em><\/p>\n

All citizens have the right to be adequately educated to flourish mentally, emotionally, and economically in a digital and artificially intelligent world.<\/em><\/p>\n

AI should never be developed or deployed separately from consideration of the ethical consequences of its applications.<\/em><\/p>\n

The autonomous power to hurt or destroy should never be vested in artificial intelligence.<\/em><\/p>\n

Governments should ensure that the best research and application of AI is directed toward the most urgent problems facing humanity.<\/em><\/p>\n

I like them; they provide an essential dimension to this debate.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The link I originally supplied no longer works.<\/p>\n

Now, commentator Cliff B has offered another variation<\/a> on this theme:<\/p>\n

Remember my 10 Commandments for AI? I sent them in a letter to the FT. They didn\u2019t publish it. I sent them to my MP, Anna Sabine. No reply. Pity. Here they are again, for old time\u2019s sake. I think they might have been useful.<\/p>\n

1. AI shall serve humanity, not govern it.<\/p>\n

2. Human authority shall prevail over machine output.<\/p>\n

3. AI shall not decide matters of rights or liberty without human judgement.<\/p>\n

4. Responsibility for AI use shall rest with humans, never machines.<\/p>\n

5. People shall be told when AI affects decisions about their lives.<\/p>\n

6. Everyone shall have the right to human review and appeal.<\/p>\n

7. AI shall not deceive, manipulate or impersonate.<\/p>\n

8. AI shall not enable unjust surveillance or profiling.<\/p>\n

9. The public good shall prevail over profit or power.<\/p>\n

10. AI shall remain a tool, never an authority.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Both are worth reflecting on. AI is not following these rules.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I published this post on The Ten Commandments of AI in 2018: The Bishop of Oxford, who sits on the House of Lords artificial intelligence
 Read the full article…<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[231,35,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ai","category-economics","category-ethics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92545"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92548,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92545\/revisions\/92548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}