Artificial intelligence systems are quickly proliferating in a number of industrial sectors. However, they carry big risks that are worrying leaders acknowledges a recent report from KPMG, a global network of professional firms providing audit, tax and advisory services.
According to the KPMG report titled “Thriving in an AI World,” a large number of leaders in industrial manufacturing, financial services, technology, retail, life sciences, health, and government say artificial intelligence (AI) is “moderately to fully functional” in their organizations, with the largest increase in one year coming from financial services, tech, and retail. Furthermore, COVID-19 has expedited the adoption of artificial intelligence, these leaders noted.
While AI delivers huge benefits to organizations, roughly half of surveyed leaders in industrial manufacturing, retail, and tech reported that they are concerned AI is spreading too fast without regard for cybersecurity, strategy, governance, and ethics.
“Many business leaders do not have a view into what their organizations are doing to control and govern A.I. and may fear risks are developing,” Traci Gusher, the principal A.I. lead for KPMG, told Fortune.
Leaders in the retail industry are particularly worried about the lack of standards around AI. Currently, 87% reported that the government should establish ground rules for how to use the technology.
However, AI governance and ethics are likely to evolve slowly among these various industries. According to the AI Index, this is due to the insufficient consensus as to what such standards should include or how they should measure progress.
Six Frameworks for Building Ethical AI Systems
While there is little general consensus around how to integrate AI systems safely into businesses, researchers are examining ways to design ethical AI systems. When considering how to design AI, it’s important to understand how technology impacts human beings and to design AI systems around the needs of users, a process known as “technology anthropology.”
“Technology anthropology consists of two things—understanding human needs and converting them into a technological product and studying the macro of how these technological interventions change our everyday life,” AI Ethics researcher and technology anthropologist Aparna Ashok told Analytics India Magazine. “My work as a tech anthropologist revolves around the study of the interaction between people and digital solutions, the changing nature of technology and its impacts on society.”
According to Ashok, here are six human frameworks organizations should consider to ensure their AI systems are ethical.
Well-being:
Design systems that foster connection and competency, as well as offering regular updates to users on the system’s goals.
Inclusion:
Analyze and understand your users’ needs, select diverse groups when training algorithms, and hire team members from diverse backgrounds.
Privacy:
Ensure the system’s data is collected, examined, processed, and shared in a way that respects the ownership of the user. Examples include giving users ownership over their data, as well as informing them how the system accesses their data. You should also consider getting user permission to change access when necessary.
Security:
Design systems that protect users’ emotional, psychological, digital, intellectual, and physical safety. Examples include storing personal data in separate databases, as well as creating alert systems that let them know if their data has been hacked.
Accountability:
Create systems that are transparent about how they make decisions, that consider biases, and that also allow users to challenge the AI’s decision making.
Trust:
Build a reliable platform that encourages genuine engagement. Examples include ensuring that content is verified and that users can access the organization’s principles. Although these frameworks may seem simple, they are a good guide for making sure your AI systems are designed with the user in mind. They can also help minimize harm and risk.
Learn about AI and Ethics
As AI continues to grow, there’s never been a greater need for practical artificial intelligence and ethics training. IEEE offers continuing education that provides professionals with the knowledge needed to integrate AI within their products and operations. Designed to help organizations apply the theory of ethics to the design and business of AI systems, Artificial Intelligence and Ethics in Design is a two-part online course program. It also serves as useful supplemental material in academic settings.
Contact an IEEE Content Specialist to learn more about how this program can benefit your organization.
Interested in getting access for yourself? Visit the IEEE Learning Network (ILN) today!
Resources
Kahn, Jeremy. (9 March 2021). A.I. is getting more powerful, faster, and cheaper—and that’s starting to freak executives out. Fortune.
Goled, Shraddha. (4 March 2021). How This AI Ethics Researcher Combines Anthropology And Technology To Build Human-First Solutions. Analytics India Magazine.
Ashok, Aparna. (29 December 2021). Ethical Principles for Humane Technology. blog.prototypr.io
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is changing the field of education—particularly continuing education. Learning does not stop following graduation from a formal education program. Many people spend their lives learning new skills or improving on existing ones. Lifelong learning can be accomplished through in-person classes, online courses, or a hybrid of both.
Because people can learn in a variety of ways, AI is able to take learning to the next level by providing the ability to customize the experience to the individual. By tracking facial movements, microexpressions, and other behaviors, AI software can try to identify ways to keep the user engaged.
Benefits of AI in Education
The main benefits of leveraging AI in education include:
- The ability to personalize learning: Everyone is different. AI technology can help people learn in the best format for them. As a result, this can improve learning speeds and success rates. It can can also provide teachers with valuable data on student performance. This information will allow teachers to see when students are struggling. They’ll then be able to intervene early and prevent students from falling behind.
- More time for teachers: A teacher’s work does not end in the classroom. Teachers create tests, check exams and homework, and much more. By using an AI assistant for administrative tasks, a teacher can save time. That time can then be used to improve upon lesson plans and provide guidance to students.
- Remaining current with technology: In order to mitigate the learning curve, employers can make sure their staff is knowledgeable on using AI. This will also make employees feel like they are keeping up with technology rather than being replaced by it.
Drawbacks/Ethical AI Education
While there is no official definition for ethical AI, it is generally interpreted as using AI for the general good of the public.
“We’re seeing AI tools that can take lots of data around career pathways and make recommendations about what students can study. So we’ve got AI informing decisions made by young people,” says Toby Baker of Nesta.
As the use of AI continues to grow and expand into various industries, there will be an increasing number of people who will have to interact with AI without understanding how it arrives at its conclusions and predictions. Baker believes that there needs to be better communication between those who develop the technology and the end-users.
It’s also vital that the users understand how their data is being managed during the machine learning process. It could be concerning to know your facial movements are being monitored without knowing the purpose behind the tracking.
Using Artificial Intelligence Ethically
With growing questions around AI and ethics, there has never been a greater need for practical artificial intelligence and ethics training. IEEE offers continuing education that provides professionals with the knowledge needed to integrate AI within their products and operations.
Artificial Intelligence and Ethics in Design, a two-part online course program, helps organizations apply the theory of ethics to the design and business of AI systems. It also serves as useful supplemental material in academic settings.
Interested in getting the course for yourself? Visit the IEEE Learning Network (ILN) today!
Resources
Salak, Bill. (8 October 2019). 3 ways AI is changing education right now (and in the future). eSchoolNews
Courtois, Jean-Philippe. (7 October 2019). How AI is transforming education and skills development. Microsoft.
Luckin, Rose; Seldon, Anthony Seldon; Lakhani, Priya. (30 September 2019). The benefits of AI and machine learning. The Guardian.
Frank, Aaron. (24 September 2019). New AI Systems Are Here to Personalize Learning. Singularity Hub.
Freeze, James. (27 September 2019). An AI Education: Overcoming Fear Of The Innovation Cycle. Forbes.