The Advertising Association (AA), the UK trade body for the advertising industry, has formed a new AI Taskforce to bring together senior representatives from across its membership to coordinate a policy approach to artificial intelligence development.
The Taskforce will be co-chaired by Google advertising industry relations manager Yves Schwarzbart and VCCP managing partner and head of social innovation Alex Dalman.
Both companies are member organisations of the AA and its exclusive Front Foot network.
The Taskforce is being created in recognition of the “rapid need to establish ethical safeguards,” according to the AA. The goal is to develop industry guidelines and, where appropriate, work with the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), the self-regulatory organisation governing ad industry, to ensure the use of AI in advertising campaigns is “transparent and legal, decent, honest and truthful.”
“With AI being the most profound technology shift that humanity is working on today, it is only right for the UK advertising industry to consider how we can be bold, yet responsible, in the way we harness the potential of AI,” said Schwarzbart.
The Taskforce will convene for a minimum of 12 months and plans to meet quarterly.
“The establishment of our AI Taskforce comes at a critical time for AI and its use, not just in the UK, but in advertising around the world,” added AA CEO Stephen Woodford. “The Taskforce will focus on the ethical usage of AI in advertising as well as helping develop the UK’s role globally for AI’s influence on marketing and advertising innovation.
“This Taskforce draws from the strengths of our AA and Front Foot membership to include the best mix of senior technical, policy and legal experts across the advertiser, agency, platform, and media community.”
The Taskforce will meet for the first time this week.
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