Part 2: Ethics in AI

February 12, 2020 Leave a comment

In attempting to come to grips with where ethics is being applied to AI I have found through formal research approaches that both private and public sector organizations and companies have created frameworks or operating principles for ethical use of data and algorithms.

That is the good news.  The bad news is they are not being enforced or really being used.  It appears as though lip service is being paid to the recommendations.

All of this got me to start to think of fundamentals of ethics and how and why it can be applied for AI or cognitive enterprises and that it would work.  

One of the challenges is if you look into the field of Ethics you are delving into a subject that has been discussed, argued and loosely defined over many years.  So ethical theory is not new yet we are attempting to apply it to an area that did not exist.

But that should not be a concern for us. If you look at how ethics as be applied and re-applied to all aspects of humanity over the years.  And in recent decades areas such as equality, abortion, class differences, hiring practices etc.  So AI will be nothing new to ethical theory.

The challenge that is raised is defining what really are ethical principles we can apply that make the most sense to ensure people are protected.

One of the guiding principles I was trained in was the area of equal consideration of interests.  So I will delve into what that means in greater detail in AI in the next post.

Have a great day !

Filed under AI, Cognitive Computing, Ethics, Explainability, Information Lifecycle Governance Tagged with ,

Part 1: A Journey into Practical Ethics and AI

February 5, 2020 Leave a comment

Hello World,

 

I have not posted in a while since I have been a little pre-occupied doing my job.  I read daily and keep so many articles on AI and I see the tide come in and go out on opinion on where AI is in being used and how advanced or how simplistic it currently is.

But one thing seems to be ringing true and that ethical practises in AI need to be addressed.  I here about some companies calling for regulation or “laser” regulation which sounds to be a bit concerning.  

When I work with clients the discussion of data and the ethical use are discussed because without clean and ethically clean data the AI algorithm or digital platform will fail.  Once you get into the AI side of the discussion then you are into areas of bias, variance and transparency.  

So from my perspective I see ethical practices to being fundamental in all aspects of implementing AI.  I have said this many times but regardless of industry or technology you can reduce the discussion to a strategy around People, Process and Policy.

So with the rubric in hand of those three principles I am going to set off on a journey step by step to look at how practical ethics can be applied to people, process and policy in the realm of using AI technology. 

Wish me luck and may the trade winds be at my back.

BTW the images may be a little random but they are mine and they just give you something nice to look at while thinking about applying ethical practices to your data and AI journey.

Filed under AI, Ethics, Explainability, Information Lifecycle Governance, Transparency Tagged with , ,

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