Davie: BBC developing ethical algorithms for internet future

Tim Davie (Source: BBC)

The BBC will develop its own “ethical algorithms” that serve common values and “proactively deploy AI on our terms” as it transforms itself “to increase relevance” in an internet-only world, according to director-general Tim Davie.

Speaking at an RTS event today, Davie said that UK public institutions had a evolved to “preserve society’s equilibrium against the pull of extremes” and that the BBC had a key role to “ provide their societal effects for future generations”.

Weaponising disinformation

Davie warned against complacency, arguing that social and civilizational fabric was under threat from external forces. He said that “over 70% of countries do not have a free press” and “hostile states…are weaponizing disinformation and using AI for democratic disruption”, while “algorithms monetise controversy, driven, understandably, by the necessity to secure traffic as an overriding commercial objective”.

He said that the BBC would have to create its own algorithms to enable it to continue to fulfill its mission to inform, educate and entertain in a way that brought UK society together.

“As we move to an internet-only world, we can shape this tipping point to act for the benefit of the British public. We can choose not to rely solely on US and Chinese tech companies who may not have the interests of a shared British culture and our democratic, tolerant society at their heart. This will require us to create unique algorithms to serve our values, for good. Algorithms and AI that bring us closer, not drive us apart. Personalisation, of course, but not driven by a narrow commercial return,” he said.

AI ‘on our terms’

He said that AI would play a key role in its future for example by enabling the BBC to translate and reformat content, but noted that the BBC had a duty to counter disinformation, particularly by investing in fact-checking.

“We will proactively deploy AI on our terms, always holding on to our published principles. Never compromising human creative control, supporting rights holders and sustaining our editorial standards, but proactively launching tools that help us build relevance. We are now working with a number of major tech companies on BBC-specific pilots which we will be deploying the most promising ones in coming months,” said Davie.

He said that the BBC was “developing unique ethical algorithms that dramatically increase personalisation but are not simply driven by the narrowing of an individual’s recommendations”.

Davie also said that the pubcaster, with the support of its commercial arm, would invest in stronger direct-to-consumer services globally, including relaunching bbc.com and the BBC app internationally, with appropriate commercialization” to help “build our position as the number one English online news brand online, globally”.

He said that documentary and podcast content would be added to that service over time.

In terms of content, Davie said that to counter the influence of global streamers where UK content was a minor part of the selection of offer, the BBC would double down on making “authentic British stories”.

Key to this, he said, would be moving more content production out of London to the regions and nations, with over 60% of TV production to be outside London by 2026, and 50% of radio and music outside London by 2027.

‘Biggest ever consultation’

Addressing the financial constraints increasingly imposed on the BBC, David said that “below inflationary settlements have chipped away at our income over many years and have put serious pressure on our finances”.

To counter this, he said, the corporation would “utilise commercial partners much more actively in areas like programming and technology to increase our horsepower”, citing a recent deal with Disney to make Doctor Who.

Davie said that the BBC aimed to double BBC Studios’ revenues to over £3.2 billion by 2027-28 through international expansion. Some existing public services such as BBC Monitoring could be moved into the commercial arm.

Finally, Davie said the BBC needs to acknlowedge that he licence fee system will have to change. He said that “we will proactively research how to reform the licence fee post-2028 – looking at its scope, how it could be more progressive, and making sure its enforcement is fair and proportionate”.

Part of this will involve the BBC’s “biggest-ever consultation process so that the public can inform and drive the debate on the future BBC”, with this to kick off next year.