OPSS Looks at AI Opportunities and Risks for Product Safety

Artificial intelligence (AI) creates both opportunities and challenges for product safety, according to a report made available May 23 from the U.K. Office for Product Safety & Standards (OPSS). Some opportunities derive from the incorporation of AI into products, allowing for improvements in areas that facilitate safety such as predictive maintenance. Others involve the design and manufacturing stages.

Meanwhile, physical risks range from injuries due to malfunctions to less acute harms like replacement of human contact. However the report emphasizes:

"To date, however, many of these risks are theoretical in nature and evidence of real-life examples of harm caused by AI consumer products is limited. This most likely reflects a combination of factors, including: (i) the lack of maturity of many consumer product sectors in using AI; (ii) the existing consideration of the possible safety impacts of AI systems by the manufacturers and developers of these products; and (iii) the difficulty understanding the role and impact of AI systems when incidences do occur."

The report deems regulatory frameworks more prepared for AI than are regulators themselves in terms of expertise.