Part 2: Ethics in AI

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 !