Exploring expert and public perceptions of answerability and trustworthy autonomous systems

The emerging regulatory landscape addressing autonomous systems (AS) is underpinned by the notion that such systems be trustworthy. What individuals and groups need to determine a system as worthy of trust has consequently attracted research from a range of disciplines, although important questions remain. These include how to ensure trustworthiness in a way that is sensitive to individual histories and contexts, as well as if, and how, emerging regulatory frameworks can adequately secure the trustworthiness of AS. This article reports the socio-legal analysis of four focus groups with publics and professionals exploring whether answerability can help develop trustworthy AS in health, finance, and the public sector. It finds that answerability is beneficial in some contexts, and that to find AS trustworthy, individuals often need answers about future actions and how organisational values are embedded within a system. It also reveals pressing issues demanding attention for meaningful regulation of such systems, including dissonances between what publics and professionals identify as ‘harm’ where AS are deployed, and a significant lack of clarity about the expectations of regulatory bodies in the UK. The article discusses the implications of these findings for the developing but rapidly setting regulatory landscape in the UK and EU.